Sam Smith’s stay in San Francisco charts a new course for Castro

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Sam Smith began his residency at San Francisco’s Castro Theater, where the singer’s 20-date stint helped officially usher in a new era for the historic landmark.

First constructed in 1922, the Castro closed in 2024 for a $41 million renovation project. But the century-old Spanish-style Baroque theater is open for business – and music – once again, with its gilded ceiling and ornate walls restored to its original design, while the seating is now reconfigurable for different occasions, including 650 seats that can be removed to create more standing room space (such as a Smiths concert). More importantly, city officials hope the reopening of the Castro Theater will also help revitalize the predominantly gay neighborhood, which shares a name with the venerable venue.

“Do you guys realize how special this street is?” Smith asked the sold-out crowd, during the second night of their residency last week. “I grew up in a village in the middle of fucking nowhere,” they shared. “I was the only gay person in the village, and yes, I was quite dramatic about it too,” they added, laughing.

“There’s nothing like this street and nothing like the Castro and the community here,” Smith said. “I will never forget coming here when I was 20, so to have this theater reopened now is a huge honour.”

Tickets for the Smith-Castro residency sold out quickly when the shows were first announced, but you can still find stubs on sites like StubHub, Vivid Seats, and SeatGeek. New users can use the promo code THR30 Save $30 on orders of $300 and up at VividSeats.com. SeatGeek customers can use the promo code Hollywood10 Save $10 at SeatGeek.com.

Smith’s stint in San Francisco comes on the heels of the film “To Be Free: New York City.” The residency took place last fall at Brooklyn’s historic Warsaw Club. Other artists scheduled to play at the Castro this spring include Father John Misty, Jose Gonzalez, Santigold and Lucy Dacus. Castro will also help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LGBTQ-themed Frameline Film Festival next June.

According to tourism officials and local businesses, Smith’s new residency in the Castro and the reopening of the theater have already helped attract a number of new visitors to the area. Matt Schuster, executive chef and owner of the longtime restaurant Canela, says business has been “pretty busy” the past few weeks, and credits Smith’s show with bringing new diners to the Spanish restaurant, which has been on Market Street since 2011. Other local hotspots include wine bar Bar49, San Francisco restaurant High Tops, and women’s sports bar, Ricky’s (named after Gay Gaming Federation founder Ricky Streicher). It was all packed on a recent evening after a Smith-Castro concert.

According to the San Francisco Tourism Authority, the reopening of the Castro Theater is expected to bring “meaningful economic gains” to the surrounding neighborhood, which some statistics estimate the venue will attract more than 200,000 visitors annually.

With the Castro Theater now open again, local officials are looking forward to other upcoming celebrations, including a planned reimagining of the intersection of Castro and Market Street at the memorial in Harvey Milk Plaza, honoring California’s first openly gay elected official (and the inspiration for the 2009 Sean Penn film). Milk’s legacy at SFO has already been enshrined, of course, with SFO’s Terminal 1 renamed the “Harvey Milk Terminal.” The new memorial is scheduled to be completed by 2028. Meanwhile, the annual Castro Street Fair, a community street celebration founded by Harvey Milk in 1974, will be held the first weekend in October.

The Castro’s reopening comes amid a busy few months in San Francisco, which has recently seen a number of athletes and celebrities in the city for the Super Bowl. Steph Curry’s new bar, The Eighth Rule, was among the hot spots over the big weekend, and the basketball star’s bourbon front bar continues to be a hot booking in town. The bar opened in the fall and is located in a nondescript hallway inside the Westin St. Louis hotel. Francis in Union Square, and offers an intimate and exclusive setting for the Golden State Warriors’ Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon, which can be ordered alone or as part of a six-course omakase-style cocktail tasting (we loved the coconut milk punch and the truffle-vanilla whiskey sour). Naturally, guests can also order bespoke cocktails, choosing from different types of bourbon and whiskey, as well as a whole host of other spirits.

Located next door to The Eighth Rule is Bourbon Steak San Francisco, the newest location of award-winning chef Michael Mina’s steakhouse. The restaurant marks the celebrated chef’s return to the Westin St. Francis, where he opened his first eponymous restaurant in 2004. In addition to a selection of steak, seafood and caviar offerings (like Mina’s famous “Twinkie Caviar”), this Bourbon Steak spot offers a family-style dining experience for six, available by advance reservation. This is the only Bourbon Steak location that offers this shared table format.

New this month is the highly anticipated opening of JouJou, an upscale French brasserie concept from the two-Michelin-starred owners of Lazy Bear. Located in the city’s Design District, JouJou is poised to be the next celebrity hangout, with its ornate dining room and marble-topped tables setting the scene for steak-fried eating and star-gazing alike. As Chef David Barzilai said San Francisco Chronicle When asked about JouJou’s inspiration: “You always seem to be in a place where this is happening.”