An offshoot of one of San Francisco’s most beleaguered restaurants has closed after nine scandal-plagued months.

Hamburger Project (opens in new tab), which replaced the sushi-centric Handroll Project on the corner of Guerrero and 18th Streets in the Mission last August, has shuttered. Owner Tan Truong confirmed the decision. “We just weren’t getting traction there,” he said Tuesday afternoon. The news was first reported (opens in new tab) by Eater SF.

That may be a considerable understatement. The smashburger restaurant’s demise comes approximately six weeks after a viral incident in which a neighbor spotted raw beef (opens in new tab) left on the sidewalk and posted it to Reddit. 

Hamburger Project staff weren’t to blame for the unattended protein; a delivery driver allegedly deposited four tubes of ground meat and a vat of mayonnaise next to the door, then took off despite there being no one there to receive the products. Truong responded (opens in new tab) quickly on Instagram, assuring would-be diners and neighbors that the products were disposed of. But the damage was done, and the image earned national (opens in new tab) attention.

Beefgate was hardly the only controversy Hamburger Project endured. In early 2025, an Instagram dust-up between the executive chef at the time, Geoffrey Lee, and a local influencer devolved into accusations of sexual and verbal harassment, leading to a bombardment of negative reviews. Lee claimed he would step away from the company’s three kitchens: Hamburger Project, Handroll Project, and his omakase restaurant Ju-ni. However, he faced further accusations of continued involvement with the businesses in a behind-the-scenes capacity.

Ju-ni and the Divisadero location of Hamburger Project remain open.

The space at the corner of Guerrero and 18th has seen a revolving door of businesses over the years. For a brief period before Handroll Project’s three-year tenure, it was home to chef Aaron London’s Al’s Deli. Before that, it was Izakaya Yuzuki, Ebb & Flow, and Craig’s Place. Way back when, it housed a pharmacy and an alleged speakeasy.

It’s a cursed address — not merely metaphorically but perhaps literally as well. A KQED investigation (opens in new tab) into the cause of all that turnover discovered that a 19th century medium and spiritualist named Mrs. C. Mayo-Steers once operated out of the building because of its favorable psychic properties. A reputation for spookiness lasted into the 21st century, with staff claiming that lights shut themselves on and off and objects moved on their own. Lee even leaned in, telling Eater SF in 2022 that the unexplained phenomena were “just too crazy (opens in new tab).”

So maybe Hamburger Project closed because of Mrs. Mayo’s beef with the Other Side. Or maybe it was the sidewalk beef and mayo.