Luce, the once Michelin-starred restaurant at the InterContinental Hotel that was a proving ground for several well known chefs including, notably, Dominique Crenn, is calling it quits — and more than likely will be replaced with something less fancy.

While it was always a hotel restaurant, Luce was one of several hotel restaurants in San Francisco that held its own in the local food scene through multiple iterations, despite being off the lobby of a hotel. Not long after opening, former executive chef Dominique Crenn won the restaurant a Michelin star in 2009, a distinction the restaurant held on to for eleven years — as the Chronicle notes today.

Luce opened with the then-new InterContinental Hotel in early 2008, and the hotel soon became a favorite of President Barack Obama when he had to come to SF — Crenn cooked for him at least once in October 2009, but he opted to dine alone in his room.

The restaurant maintained a high level of quality, featuring refined takes on Mediterranean food but never, perhaps, carving out a specific identity besides being a Michelin-level, tasting-menu experience.

Other chefs who came through the kitchen include Top Chef Season 12 winner Melissa King, who had been a sous chef at Luce before appearing on the show, and multiply Michelin-starred Rogelio Garcia, who reopened the restaurant in 2021 but moved on to earn a Michelin star at Auro in Calistoga.

Luce lost its Michelin star while it was still closed for the pandemic, when the 2021 updated Bay Area guide was released.

The trend of the last decade in hotels was to take previously fancy, tablecloth-type restaurants and turn them into casual but semi-upscale taverns with artisanal cocktails and a decent burger. That same thing may not happen at the InterContinental, but a pivot of some kind is likely in the works, even as locally and in New York, restaurateurs are opening more elaborate, pomp-and-circumstance fine dining restaurants.

Both the upcoming JouJou in the Design District, from the chef and team at Lazy Bear, and Via Aurelia from the Che Fico folks fit that bill, with the restaurant groups betting that diners with means are looking for more theatricality, more formality, and more reasons to dine out and have a special experience — especially when even casual dining is pretty expensive these days.

As the Chronicle notes, now the Luce is closed, the InterContinental will still serve food, and its hotel bar, Bistro 888, remains open.