A chef whose career was ruined after he refused an influencer a free meal has now sold his second restaurant at a substantial loss, the Daily Mail has learned.
Luke Sung offloaded his San Francisco sushi restaurant Domo for far less than the $500,000-$750,000 it was worth, its manager Jesse Ibarra said.
Sung – who last month was forced to quit Kis Cafe after telling Karla Marcotte she was not famous enough for a free dinner – took the hit so he could sell to his co-owner Bernardo Goana. Ibarra said Sung did so because he wanted the raw fish restaurant to end up in the right hands.
‘This whole thing broke his heart, but you also have to respect everyone,’ Ibarra said.
‘His initial decision to close shocked everyone in the kitchen because he is a very good guy. There were tears and everyone was hurt. This broke him, but it will also rebuild him. You learn from your mistakes and he has apologized.’
Ibarra added: ‘I can’t speak for him, but I know the key is he has taken ownership for what he did. How will it affect his future? Maybe he will open a restaurant somewhere else.’
Goana, who is also the chef at Domo, told the Daily Mail getting to take over the restaurant at the cost of his friend’s career was ‘bittersweet’. It sits just a block away from the doomed Kis Cafe.
Sung is now believed to have fled his hometown of San Francisco in the hopes his absence will make the drama die down faster.
He was nominated for the ultra-prestigious James Beard Award for chefs twice before the influencer scandal and lauded as a master of his trade.
Sung left Kis Cafe and sold the business to his partners there after the restaurant contacted Marcotte, offering her a free meal in return for a post on her TikTok account last month.
But when Marcotte got to the restaurant, which had just opened, Sung tore into her for not having enough followers to justify him giving her a freebie and threw her out.
Marcotte shared details of the ordeal on her TikTok account, which had 15,000 followers at the time but has now swollen to almost half a million.
She didn’t name Sung, but sleuths quickly worked out his identity and Kis Cafe was inundated with bad reviews.
It closed down shortly after but has since reopened under a new name, Bosque. The menu is almost identical to what was offered by Kis Cafe.
Eric Lin, Sung’s former business partner, bought Sung’s shares and is now the sole owner of Bosque.
On Thursday, Lin told the Daily Mail Sung ‘chose to leave’ and was not fired.
‘Kis was something Luke and I started together and it has a certain intimacy,’ Lin said on his decision to rename the restaurant.
‘We needed to keep that out in order to move on. It needed to kind of die in order to respect everyone involved.’
‘I’m taking Luke’s decision seriously and I want to honor his decision and do things right,’ Lin continued. ‘He’s still my friend. He will always be Uncle Luke to me, but in terms of the business, we have parted ways.’
Lin said he was disturbed by the torrent of hate directed at the restaurant over the scandal, much of it racist.
He said Marcotte, the influencer whose ejection sparked the outrage, is welcome back anytime.
Bosque was doing a roaring dinner trade on Thursday.
Lin smiled and warmly greeted each table of patrons, who were a mix of locals and tourists.
While the chef fired up aged hanger steaks and carefully crafted scallops with truffle and beurre noisette, customers whispered about Bosque’s sudden launch.
Some of the diners had even come especially after hearing of the scandal surrounding Sung and Marcotte
‘Are you kidding me? That’s why we are here,’ said John O’Connor, who was enjoying his dinner with his wife. ‘We have been joking about this place for a while now because I read the transcripts of what happened.
‘I think [Sung] had an off night and he was terrible to her [Marcotte], but now it’s too little too late. It looked like he was being a bully. You have to realize that we live in a world where you have to be aware and watch what you say to anybody. But frankly, the food here is phenomenal and we want it to survive and thrive.’
Sadly, the Sung family is not getting to enjoy the buzz surrounding the food originally created by the canceled chef.
Sung’s musician son and fashion influencer daughter Isa have both been relentlessly trolled online over the scandal.
The chef told the San Francisco Standard that he is scheduling family therapy to try and help them all through the ordeal.
When a reporter knocked on their door Thursday, a woman believed to be Sung’s wife opened it, then slammed it shut on being asked about the scandal.
Apologizing to Marcotte earlier this month, Sung said: ‘Karla — I am truly sorry for my actions towards you,’ the chef stated. ‘I was condescending, hurtful, and intimidating. You did not deserve to be made fell less then or unimportant.’
‘Everything is broken into pieces,’ the chef said. ‘I have to try to pick it up and glue it back together. I have to just let it heal.’