Sam Smith’s San Francisco Residency Charts New Course for the Castro
The reopening of the iconic Castro Theatre comes amidst a busy few months for San Francisco, which recently saw a number of stars in town for the Super Bowl
By Tim Chan
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February 28, 2026 7:04pm
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Sam Smith has kicked off his residency at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, with the singer’s 20-date stint helping to officially usher in a new era for the historic landmark.
First erected in 1922, the Castro closed in 2024 for a reported $41 million renovation project. But the century-old Spanish-style Baroque theatre is open for business — and music — once again, with its gilded ceiling and ornamental walls restored to its original design, while seating is now reconfigurable for different events, including 650 seats that can be removed to create more standing room space (like for Smith’s concert). More importantly, city officials hope the re-opening of the Castro Theatre will also help revive the predominantly queer neighborhood it sits in, which shares a name with the venerable venue.
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“Do you guys realize how special this street is?” Smith asked the sold-out crowd, during night two of their residency last week. “I grew up in a village in the middle of f-ckin’ nowhere,” they shared. “I was the only gay in the village and yes I was very dramatic about it as well,” they added with a laugh.
“There is nothing like this street and nothing like the Castro and the community here,” Smith said. “I’ll never forget coming here when I was 20 years old, so reopening this theater now is such an honor.”
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Tickets to Smith’s Castro residency quickly sold out when the shows were first announced but you can still find stubs on sites like StubHub, Vivid Seats and SeatGeek. New users can use the promo code THR30 to save $30 on orders of $300 and up at VividSeats.com. SeatGeek customers can use promo code HOLLYWOOD10 to save $10 at SeatGeek.com.
Smith’s San Francisco stint follows their “To Be Free: New York City,” residency which took place last fall at Brooklyn’s historic Warsaw club. Other artists set to play at the Castro this spring include Father John Misty, José González, Santigold and Lucy Dacus. The Castro will also help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LGBTQ-themed Frameline Film Festival this June.
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Castro Theatre Tickets on Vivid Seats
Smith’s residency runs until March 14.
According to tourism officials and local businesses, Smith’s new Castro residency and the reopening of the theatre has already helped to bring in a number of new visitors to the area. Mat Schuster, the executive chef and owner of long-time neighborhood fixture, Canela, says business has been “very busy” in the last few weeks, crediting Smith’s show with bringing out new diners to the Spanish restaurant, which has been on Market Street since 2011. Other local hotspots like wine bar Bar49, the San Francisco outpost of Hi Tops, and the women’s sports bar, Rikki’s (named after Gay Games Federation founder Rikki Streicher), were all packed on a recent evening following Smith’s Castro concert.
According to San Francisco Tourism, the reopening of The Castro Theatre is poised to deliver “meaningful economic gains” to the surrounding neighborhood, which some stats estimating that the venue will draw more than 200,000 visitors annually.
With the Castro Theatre now open again, local officials are looking ahead to other upcoming celebrations, including a planned reimagining of the Castro and Market Street intersection into The Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza, honoring the first openly gay elected official in California (and the inspiration for the 2009 Sean Penn film). Milk’s legacy is already enshrined at the San Francisco airport of course, with terminal 1 at SFO renamed as the “Harvey Milk Terminal;” the new memorial is scheduled to be completed by 2028. The annual Castro Street Fair, meantime, a community street celebration founded by Harvey Milk in 1974, will take place on the first weekend of October.
The reopening of the Castro comes amidst a busy few months for San Francisco, which recently saw a number of athletes and celebrities in town for the Super Bowl. Steph Curry’s new speakeasy, The Eighth Rule, was among the hotspots over the big game weekend and the basketball star’s bourbon-forward bar continues to be a hot reservation in the city. Opened in the fall, the bar is tucked away in a nondescript hallway inside the Westin St. Francis hotel in Union Square, offering an intimate and exclusive setting for the Golden State Warriors point guard’s Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon, which can be ordered on its own or as part of a six-course omakase-style cocktail tasting (we loved the clarified coconut milk punch and the truffle-vanilla whiskey sour). Of course, guests can also order cocktails a la carte, choosing from different bourbons and whiskeys, plus a full selection of other spirits.
Next door to The Eighth Rule is Bourbon Steak San Francisco, the latest outpost of Chef Michael Mina’s award-winning steakhouse. The restaurant marks the celebrity chef’s return to the Westin St. Francis, where he opened his first eponymous restaurant in 2004. In addition to its selection of steaks, seafood and caviar offerings (like Mina’s famous “caviar twinkee”), this Bourbon Steak outpost offers a family-style dining experience for six people, available through advance reservations. This is the only Bourbon Steak location to offer this communal table format.
New this month is the highly-anticipated opening of JouJou, an elevated French brasserie concept from the owners of the two Michelin-starred Lazy Bear. Located in the city’s Design District, JouJou is poised to be the next celebrity hangout, with its ornate dining room and marble-topped counters setting the scene for steak frites and star sightings alike. As chef David Barzelay told the San Francisco Chronicle when asked about the inspiration for JouJou: “It always feels like you’re just in a place where it’s happening.”
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