Aqua
Financial District
252 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111
"After graduating high school in 1986, Mina gave college a try. But the truth is he already had a dream of cooking at the Space Needle. He’d just seen Jeremiah Tower on TV, and the San Francisco chef made cooking look sexy. Mina knew he wanted that life...It was in New York that Mina would open the Tribeca Grill with Gerry Hayden and Claudia Fleming, setting the wheels in motion for helping to open Aqua at 23 years old in San Francisco." - Paolo Bicchieri
"In Mina's case, the 50-year-old chef says a catastrophic event right before the 1991 opening of his very first restaurant, Aqua in San Francisco, taught the restaurateur one of his most important lessons: patience." - Rina Rapuano
"Aqua was Michael Mina's first restaurant, opened in 1991, after delays caused by the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco. It played a pivotal role in his career, teaching him patience and resilience at a young age." - Rina Rapuano
"Mina then moved to The City by the Bay, making a name for himself at Aqua at the young age of 21." - The MICHELIN Guide
Patricia Utley
Gregory Ware
