When chef Brad Kilgore stepped into the redevelopment of San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid, it wasn’t just another opening. It was the result of a strategic shift years in the making, one that reframed how he thought about restaurants, opportunity, and longevity in a notoriously fragile industry.
“I've always had entrepreneurial aspirations,” Kilgore says. “And while my vision has always been the same, the world has changed so much.”
His rise began far from California. Kilgore grew up washing dishes at 10 years old in Kansas City before working under Chef Celina Tio at The American. “Big city aspirations” took him to Chicago, where he cooked at Alinea under Chef Grant Achatz and L2O under Chef Laurent Gras. Miami cemented his name: at Alter, the former Food & Wine Best New Chef in America became synonymous with the city’s pre-pandemic momentum.
But COVID reshaped everything.
“Post-COVID the focus became to partner with developers,” Kilgore says. “Food and beverage is a story of a property and restaurants are a piece of the puzzle in the real estate strategy. I didn't really realize the potential of it until COVID hit. It opened up our eyes to how different the industry is and how little we have to stand with. Everything is day-by-day with restaurants and as the saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
The lesson reframed his trajectory. The closures of Alter, Ember, and Kaido weren’t endings so much as catalysts. The experience, he says, ignited a new clarity about what Kilgore Culinary Group (KCG) could be.
A Billion-Dollar Partnership
That clarity led him to developer Michael Shvo, whose acquisition and $400 million redevelopment of the iconic Transamerica Pyramid positioned Kilgore at the center of one of the most ambitious food-and-design projects in America.
"As we remaster this iconic property for locals and visitors, Brad’s vision has played a key role in energizing the neighborhood and supporting San Francisco’s cultural resurgence," Shvo says. He calls Kilgore's cuisine "creative and sophisticated."
For Kilgore, the draw was both timing and possibility. His next major projects were still years out, and Transamerica offered him something rare: the chance to help reimagine a landmark in a city with one of the deepest culinary lineages in the world.
“From a chef's perspective, this is the culinary mecca,” Kilgore says. “The level of chefs is second to none and I wanted to be an SF chef who gets to source from the best and make use of seasonal availability."
