From Trash Pie to Supper Club: Meet the Reinvented Shuggie’s
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Say hello to Shuggie’s, a.k.a. the restaurant formerly known as Shuggie’s Trash Pie + Natural Wine. When version 1.0 opened back in 2022, it was a colorful, climate-friendly hotspot that quickly became critically acclaimed for its thin and crispy square pizza as well as its mission to fight food waste. It was a smashing success.
But never ones to rest on their laurels, life and business partners David Murphy and Kayla Abe wanted to shake things up a little bit. “When we were confined to pizza. It limited how we could showcase whole-harvest cooking, overlooked proteins, and the full spectrum of imperfect produce our partners bring us,” says Abe. “The dinner club format has been incredibly liberating for our mission.”
“The format allows us to integrate entertainment directly into dining through live jazz performances, creating a community atmosphere where food, music, and mission come together,” says Abe, who also redesigned the front yellow “cheetah room” into a vibe-ier 1970’s-inspired orange dining room, adding wraparound glitter banquette seating as well as new mural of a lady in boots made by Abe herself (a true artist).
See below for some of the essential eats at Shuggie’s 2.0:
Tuna Rib Crudo
The tuna rib crudo might be one of the best dishes we’ve eaten this year. Murphy sources tuna ribs that would otherwise go to waste and paints them with a rich and flavorful house tare, which is made with charred fish and plenty of aromatics that gets reduced down and seasoned with gochujang and shirodashi. The result is a sweet, sticky, savory, oceanic caramel-like sauce that flavors the raw fish.
The rib then gets decorated with a creamy green curry aioli, fiery pickled Thai chiles, tomatillos, lemon cucumbers, and furikake. You scrape bits of the tuna of the rib with your spoon, getting a little of everything in one delightful bite.
“It’s a perfect example of our climate-positive mission, taking what would typically be discarded and transforming it into something interactive and delicious,” says Murphy.
Fair warning: There are only 12 per night, so get your order in quick.
Cacio e Pepe Pillow
The cacio e pepe pillow is our new favorite bread service. The focaccia-like situation is a nod to the Trash Pie days, using a similar but higher-hydration, naturally leavened dough made from upcycled flour like spent oat flour (the result of making oat milk) and whey (a byproduct of cheese).
“The inspiration is to bridge the gap between the new and old Shuggie’s and give people a fun bread service that honors our pizza roots,” says Murphy.
The dough is shaped into pillows, baked until golden brown and delicious, then topped with an egg yolk, creamy straciatella, and a shower of black pepper and Grana Padano. Tear off a piece of bread with your hands, use it to pop the yolk, and then go to town.
Beef Three
The Beef Three is a meaty version of steak frites that, in true Shuggie’s fashion, utilizes off cuts sourced from Stemple Creek, a local, grass-fed rancher that specializes in regenerative farming practices.
“This dish is the ultimate expression of our whole-animal cooking philosophy and is my climate positive take on a classic steak frites,” says Murphy. “It’s about celebrating the entire animal and showing diners that sustainability doesn’t mean sacrifice; it means discovery.”
The dinner club format has been incredibly liberating for our mission.— Kayla Abe
The plate comes with beef three ways and will change depending on what’s available. The current set includes three-ounce petit filets that are leftover odd cuts from filet mignon sliced for other restaurants; a blackberry-braised beef cheek; and dredged, butter-basted sweetbreads served with a pour of rich, sticky demiglace.
The trio comes with a compound butter that’s made with walnuts, anchovies, capers, and tons of herbs; it adds a good, punchy, rich, round, and bright layer to the dish. Also on the plate: a nasal-clearing horseradish cream and pickled beech mushrooms to cut through the richness of it all between bites.
Bon Bon Handy
Save room for dessert — it’s tiny but mighty and extremely fun to eat, too.
A cart comes wheeling to you. The server brings out a pastry bag full of cold, creamy peanut butter mousse that gets piped onto your fist (it almost feels like a spa treatment). The server then carefully places a small chocolate bon bon from Bisou on top, tops it with a chocolate tuille for texture, then the finale: a smattering of edible glitter.
You take your hand and to your mouth and eat it in one bite: you don’t really understand what just happened. It makes no sense — but boy, is it a fun way to end your meal.
Bonus: Pizza on Sundays
And because they couldn’t totally ditch the Trash Pie that made them famous, Shuggie’s is doing pizza only on Sundays. They only have two pizzas on the menu: Bobos Pep, The Roni (which features pepperoni slivers and a spicy sweet honey chile drizzle) as well as a seasonally changing pizza.
“Due to popular demand from our community who couldn’t bear to say goodbye to our beloved Trash Pies,” says Murphy.
Sometimes you gotta give the people what they want, and sometimes people want pizza.
Omar Mamoon is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and cookie dough professional. Follow him on Instagram.
