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Lüke, the River Walk restaurant that helped usher in a wave of chef-driven restaurants in San Antonio, is shutting down at the end of the month.
It started with a flourish and the bright lights of New Orleans-based celebrity chef John Besh and much acclaim, but its quality declined over the years and a review in October 2016 documented its downfall.
“Whatever charms celebrity chef John Besh brought to this stylish New Orleans saloon when it opened in 2010, they’ve faded with time,” the 2016 review stated. “(The) Lüke experience fell squarely in the languid execution zone favored by more modest hotel restaurants.”
Read the review that showed the final stages of Lüke’s demise .
The closing was first reported by the San Antonio Current, and the Besh Restaurant Group confirmed the closure in a statement.
The version of Lüke that opened in November 2010 seemed like a completely different place from the one that’s now closing. In those heady times, it was the first restaurant from Besh outside his native New Orleans and immediately caused a stir in San Antonio.
“Lüke has quickly become the most talked-about restaurant downtown, if not the entire city, and for good reason,” said a January 2011 review. “To be sure, this French-German brasserie by way of New Orleans serves very good dishes, but what keeps people coming back is something even more elemental: genuine hospitality.”
Read the review of Lüke when it was at the top of its game in 2011 .
The excitement of the first — and still only — national celebrity chef to come to San Antonio brought a national buzz the city had rarely experienced.
And the everyday happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. featuring 50 cent Gulf oysters, 50 cent meat pies and half price cocktails quickly cemented the restaurant’s place as a must-visit attraction. The restaurant’s version of a French 75, substituting cognac for the traditional gin, muscled itself as one of the city’s favorite cocktails.
That same year, it received the Express-News Readers’ Choice award for best new restaurant and scored with critics for service and its happy hour.
In 2015, the performance at Lüke was strong enough to land it as No. 13 in The top 20 restaurants list in the inaugural Express-News’ “Top 100 Dining & Drinks” list. Early the following year, it had slipped, but still was strong enough to make the overall list in the 2016 “Top 100” guide.
That all changed late last year when it was reviewed again. A pair of visits found mostly empty tables instead of the packed and lively dining room, indifferent service and mostly forgettable dishes.
Then-executive chef John Russ left Nov. 28, the restaurant group said. Louisiana native Drake Leonards succeeded him. Russ is said to be working on a new restaurant project with his wife, pastry chef Elise Broz Russ. He did not respond to a request for comment made late Thursday.
Lüke leaves behind some strong alumni, who have gone on to their own achievements.
The first executive chef, Steve McHugh, is now chef and owner of Cured in The Pearl and just received his second James Beard Award nomination as Best Chef-Southwest. He was traveling Thursday and unavailable to comment.
Luis Colón, a cook on the team that opened Lüke, created what Texas Monthly called the best burger in the state at the now-closed Folc restaurant. That burger will appear on the menu on the soon-to-open Bexar Pub, a new project for the Folc team, and at the new location of Folc itself, whenever and wherever it opens.
Diego Galicia worked at at Lüke for a year while attending the Culinary Institute of America-San Antonio. He now is the chef and co-owner of Mixtli, the modernist restaurant that has garnered regional and national acclaim for its creative stylings of regional Mexican cuisine.
“I learned (at Lüke) that cooking is a team sport, and we really had to meld together for the whole thing to work,” Galicia said. “Among the cooks, there was a certain sense of pride, a sense of ownership.”
But he, too, saw it decline more recently.
“It was sad slowly watching it die,” Galicia said. “I’m pretty sad it’s closing.”
Joe Melton, general manager for the Embassy Suites San Antonio River Walk Downtown where Lüke is a tenant, said the hotel is in talks with both local and out-of-town restaurateurs to fill the space.
“It’s a great space,” said Melton. “We certainly want to fill that space with another great restaurant property.”
etijerina@express-news.net
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