Mina’s Touch: Renowned Chef Michael Mina Comes Full Circle

World-renowned chef Michael Mina’s career is coming full circle.

Just one year ago, Mina opened his eponymous eatery MICHAEL MINA San Francisco on the site of his beloved first restaurant, AQUA. This milestone is paired with another – this October marks Mina’s 20th anniversary in San Francisco.

The decision to open his namesake restaurant on the site of AQUA was an emotional one.

[highlight_text] He describes driving by the restaurant and just admiring the beauty and architecture of the space. [/highlight_text]

“I learned all the realities of running a restaurant and running a company and being pulled in a million different directions and still be able to weather it and create something magical,” Mina said of the initial years of AQUA. Mina was an innovator of sorts, since AQUA’s menu was a bold one, serving only fish.

He describes those first years at AQUA in the 1990s with a vibrancy and twinge of emotion, even years later.

“When I started out, everyone was just young. There was some really good camaraderie,” he said. “It was very hard work, a crazy kitchen environment, there’s no doubt. But boy, with everybody challenging everybody, [we] constantly made things better. And what emerged from that was this extremely talented group of people.”

But it seems that dynamic wasn’t meant to last.

“Unfortunately I had a not so good falling out with my partner,” Mina said of his departure in 2002. “My biggest challenge was having to walk out of AQUA and leave all my staff behind. I had a very, very loyal staff and very loyal customers that I had to walk away from; and I had no choice. I was put in a position where I absolutely had to walk away. This was the place that was my home. I had painted the walls before we opened for the first time.”

Even though he was focused on a new venture, Mina Group, it took some time to get over the shock of leaving AQUA.

“Nothing made me stay up [more,]” he said. “People committed their life to [it] and I had walk out and I couldn’t say a word to them. It was a big mess.”

But Mina wasn’t done with the AQUA space yet. He describes driving by the restaurant and just admiring the beauty and architecture of the space.

“It was like breaking up with an ex-girlfriend when you’re so in love with her, [and] you drive by her house,” he said. “I’ve always been in love with that space. I always felt that was the sexiest, most beautiful restaurant space in San Francisco. And so when I finally got to walk [back] into the restaurant it was very emotional.”

But before Mina’s return to his culinary home, he tackled other projects. Mina has opened a total of 24 eateries, 19 with his company Mina Group and 5 prior to that. Notable names like Bourbon Steak, American Fish, Arcadia, Clock Bar, Michael Mina, Nobhill Tavern, RN74, SeaBlue and Stripsteak are just some names on Mina’s laundry list of accomplishments. He even partnered up with Andre Agassi eight and half years ago.

But it seems that amongst this long and notable list, MICHAEL MINA reopening on the site of AQUA is what he names as his greatest success.

“It was everything I hoped it would be,” he said. “Every detail was thought through. Now we’ve signed the lease and it’s ours. Now we’ve got to live up to [it.] It wasn’t about living up to any hype, because honestly, nobody is going to be harder on us in that space than we are going to be on ourselves.”

For him, MICHAEL MINA is sort of a cumulation of his past 20 years of experience.

“The food at MICHAEL MINA is kind of what I’ve taken over the last 20 years, [refined] and made into my style of cuisine,” he said. “It’s not a steakhouse or a fish restaurant or an Italian or French restaurant. [It]was a very calculated decision to keep it without a theme because that’s not how I cook.”

Mina creates dishes based on four principles: acidity, sweetness, spice and fat. The menu at MICHAEL MINA very much reflects that. The menu has several dishes that are simply new takes on old classics; in fact, Mina’s favorite dish on the menu right now is the pork & beans.

Over the past 20 years, Mina has come a long way. And when it comes down to it, he couldn’t be happier with how things turned out.

“I am blessed, 100 percent blessed,” he said. “I went from being in a situation where there was constant uncertainty to being in a situation where Andre Agassi is my partner. Honestly, its very rare when you can take the top five human beings you’ve ever met in your life, everything ethically, everything about them. If you can do that and then have one of them be your sole partner, you’re pretty damn lucky.”

We’d say there’s luck all around in this case.

Additional reporting by Mollie Lichy