Chef Imana, owner of buzzy Oakland supper club Hi Felicia, signed a lease in SoMa Tuesday for her long-awaited side project, Sluts Wine Bar.
Sluts finds a forever home at 1116 Folsom St., the former location of Terroir Natural Wine Bar & Merchant.
The bar was originally slated to open in Mint Hill, but, as Hoodline reported, the landlord abruptly cut off the deal, even though Imana—who prefers to go by her first name only—already had the keys in hand.
“The day my first space fell through, I called a number on an ad and serendipitously fell into this space,” Imana said in the Instagram post.
The chef also expressed gratitude for the former tenants after signing the lease in SoMa. “I want to say how honored and humbled I am to be taking over such an iconic space,” she wrote on Hi Felicia’s Instagram account. “I have very large shoes to fill.”
The lease-signing comes a week after Hi Felicia, along with six other Bay Area restaurants, earned a place in the Michelin Guide.
Hi Felicia began as a pandemic pop-up in the 26-year-old chef’s Oakland Hills apartment with a cult-like following that made it very difficult to score a reservation. It opened as a brick-and-mortar restaurant about six months ago at 326 23rd St. in Oakland.