Michael Mina and SBE's XIV Closed Doors Yesterday

In a way it seems like XIV never understood its own identity. Was it a fine dining establishment? Was it a flashy scene? Upon the restaurant's inception back in 2008, San Francisco chef Michael Mina crafted a 35-item menu in which all guests at a given table had to order the same list of courses, be it three courses or 30. This menu was dubbed a "social dining experiment." That didn't really work out and just a few months later that whole experiment switched over to a more normalized dining concept. But then who can forget that whole amped up Bagatelle-esque attempt where "contortionists, fire breathers, and performers walking around on stilts" strolled through the space during Sunday brunch, not to mention the bottles popping left and right. A shitshow, to say the least. After chef de cuisine Steven Fretz departed to open his own restaurant, XIV made a frantic attempt to stay afloat via several menu changes, but alas, the sinking ship could not rise again. XIV closed its doors as of yesterday, expect a new SBE concept to come.
·All XIV Coverage [~ELA~]