Aqua closing Pisces

Thanks to the Covers operative who tipped me off to the fact that Aqua is closing their Pisces seafood restaurant in Burlingame. I got into details on the Business Times website this morning.

While flagship Aqua was the two-Michelin-starred alpharaunt of San Francisco, Pisces did not even merit a mention in the redcoated guidebook's "South of San Francisco" section. People writing in to Zagat rated it a middling 22/30, with one providing the not-so-ringing endorsement "more charming than annoying." The Chronicle gave it two stars in its last review two and a half years ago.

Meanwhile, Pisces was not profitable and needed a facelift that the landlord would not underwrite. So, according to Laurent Manrique, the restaurant is set to close within the week ending Monday.

Aqua Development Corp. still has, in addition the flagship, the profitable and buzzy Cafe de la Presse, a more casual place near Union Square.

It's worth noting that the company's website now lists just two restaurants, compared with six restaurants three years ago. The company is, however, "probably" going to reopen Pisces somewhere else, Manrique said, and there is no reason the company can't come up with more successful concepts like de la Presse, which opened just over one year ago.