July 2023 was a landmark moment for the cultivated meat industry. For the first time, meat brewed directly from chicken cells went on sale in two US restaurants after a pair of California startups got a greenlight from the US Department of Agriculture. The US had joined Singapore as the only places where the public could buy it.
Now cultivated meat is no longer available in any restaurants in the US, Singapore, or anywhere else. The small handful of restaurants that sold cultivated meat have paused or stopped sales, while the two startups cleared to sell it in those two countries are considering their next moves.
On July 1, 2023, Upside Foods held the first public sale of its cultivated chicken. The event took place at Michelin-starred restaurant Bar Crenn in San Francisco. Soon afterwards, Bar Crenn—helmed by celebrity chef Dominique Crenn—started offering Upside’s chicken as part of a six-course, $150 tasting menu. The limited seatings for these meals took place on the first weekend of each month from August 4, 2023.
Bar Crenn had taken meat off its menu altogether in 2018, so the Upside partnership marked the first time that any meat other than seafood had been served at the restaurant for years. “We are thrilled to bring meat back to our menu with a partner that shares our values and ingredient standards,” read a section of Bar Crenn’s website announcing the partnership. But in mid-January 2024, the restaurant’s website was updated to remove the reference to its partnership with Upside.
WIRED approached Upside Foods for comment on January 31 about this change. Shortly afterwards the company published a LinkedIn post announcing that it had “wrapped up” its dinner series at Bar Crenn and planned to take its chicken “on the road.” Neither Dominique Crenn nor Bar Crenn responded to multiple requests for comment.
“We are proud to have partnered with Chef Dominique Crenn to make history, from the first-ever US sale of cultivated meat to a series of Upside dinners at Bar Crenn that delighted consumers with a delicious taste of the future,” wrote Upside in an emailed statement provided by its interim head of communications, Melissa Musiker.
In September 2023, a WIRED investigation revealed how Upside’s production of chicken for its Bar Crenn partnership required a large amount of single-use plastic. Bar Crenn’s website states that it is a “certified plastic-free” restaurant. “We work closely with all of our vendors to educate them on their use of plastics and their impact on the planet,” its website says.
In July 2023, another Californian startup started selling its cultivated chicken. This time it was Good Meat—a subsidiary of Eat Just. The company sold its chicken to a limited number of diners at chef José Andrés’ restaurant, China Chilcano, in Washington, DC. But in September 2023 the China Chilcano website was updated to say that reservations to try the Good Meat chicken “are currently paused.” José Andrés did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
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