Downtown French Restaurant Le Politique Is Really, Truly, Permanently Closed

Sprawling downtown French restaurant Le Politique is officially, permanently closed to make way for a new restaurant from lauded chef Michael Mina. A representative from Le Politique’s restaurant group New Waterloo confirmed the closure at 110 San Antonio Street in the Second Street district, and a representative for the Mina Group confirmed the new restaurant is slated to open in mid-2023.

The new restaurant will be an entirely new concept for Mina’s restaurant group that is currently in development, per the Mina Group representative. Mina, who is originally from Cairo, Egypt, won the James Beard Award for Best California Chef in 2002, and now operates the Mina Group, which has over 40 restaurants worldwide.

Le Politique opened in September 2017 to generally mixed reviews. It offered French fare like trout almondine, fondue, rich desserts, and a raw bar, as well as a next-door cafe that served coffee and pastries. It closed briefly in 2018 for a renovation and menu revamp, then closed again in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened.

A representative from New Waterloo confirmed to Eater that Le Politique can be considered permanently closed.

Beloved New Waterloo sandwich shop La Matta similarly closed permanently when a new restaurant leased the space, though the group’s other restaurants Il Brutto, Sway, La Condesa, and the restaurants at the South Congress Hotel, are open and accounted for.

Update, December 9 - This article has been updated to reflect that Michael Mina’s restaurant will open in the Le Politique space.

Update, December 10 - A previous version of this article listed Stripsteak as the Mina Group restaurant going into the space, based on building permits on file for the restaurant, However, this has been corrected based on information from the Mina Group representative.

Update, December 12 - First paragraph edited for clarity.