By Joe Bonadio

Fog City. The City By The Bay. Frisco. Whatever the sobriquet, San Francisco has long been beloved around the world: for its iconic landmarks, its incredible food, its unique position in America’s legacy, and a thousand reasons more. It’s no exaggeration: as the Italians have Rome and the French have Paris, the Americans have San Francisco.

But let’s face the facts—we’ve had a rough few years. Unlike scores of American cities, San Francisco shut down tight when the Covid curtain dropped and stayed shut, an abrupt halt that changed the face of the city. First it was Chinatown that was hardest hit, then the broad swathe of San Francisco from the Financial District through Downtown and SOMA emptied out like a dead party balloon, an aching absence that still persists.

Meanwhile, other neighborhoods—North Beach first among them—bloomed as businesses moved their seating outside into the sunlight, building parklets that transformed our streets forever.

The pandemic also changed the habits of San Franciscans, and seldom for the better. Even before Covid, you’d hear grumbling about the stereotyped San Franciscan: a tech bro living on cafeteria lunches and Uber Eats, only returning to his apartment to watch Netflix and shop for personal electronics on Amazon.

All kidding aside, if it was true then, it’s absolutely true now: people in this city just don’t go out as much as they used to. If Covid did one thing, it gave everyone an excuse to be antisocial.

For that reason and others, San Francisco’s road to economic recovery has been especially bumpy. Our retail numbers for 2024, in a city ostensibly in the midst of a comeback, were slightly down from 2023. It has been discouraging, especially for small businesses, many of which have struggled to survive since the pandemic began almost five years ago.

So why is it taking so long for San Francisco to come back?

Looking for answers, I visited with George Chen, owner of Chinatown standard-bearer China Live, and his wife and partner Cindy Wong-Chen. The Chens have spent most of the last thirty years at the center of the San Francisco dining scene. It began with Betelnut, a game-changer for Asian cuisine in San Francisco when it opened in 1995. That was the name on everyone’s lips when I moved to this city two years later; it was at Betelnut that I enjoyed my first meal in a “modern” Asian restaurant.

An auspicious start, Betelnut launched the Chens on a path that would see them create 15 more restaurants over the ensuing three decades, including Shanghai 1930  in San Francisco and Roosevelt Prime Steakhouse—in Shanghai.

But by far the Chens’ most ambitious project would prove to be China Live. Opened in 2017 on the border of Chinatown and Little Italy, China Live was far more than a restaurant. A massive, multi-concept culinary destination with a full-blown retail element, it was a 30,000 square-foot megalith that the San Francisco Chronicle described as “epic.”

As with their earlier restaurants, at China Live the Chens sought to change popular perceptions of Chinese cuisine in the U.S., elevating it beyond takeout stereotypes and showcasing its craftsmanship and regional diversity. Their motivation was simple: Chinese cuisine shouldn’t be viewed any differently than French and Italian food are—and with China Live, they had created the grandiose setting that would reset people’s expectations.

Now the two are raising their sights once again: their new concept Asia Live is set to open at Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara in Fall of this year, just one of two big projects on their radar. The other, still under wraps, is slated to be smack in the middle of Downtown—and it’s rumored to be huge.

“I’m very bullish on San Francisco. But it’s going to take some time,” George told me, his tone optimistic but cautious. “In the meanwhile, before we’re all the way back, it has really been hard to bottom-fish. Look, we just lost Bloomingdale’s, and that’s a huge hit. I think a lot of people are sort of scratching their heads.

“But we have new leadership, a new supervisor, so we’re going to see changes,” he said. “Maybe it’s a good time for business people like Cindy and myself to get going.”

With Asia Live, George will in a sense be revisiting the original Betelnut concept, only writ large. “My first restaurant was Pan-Asian,” the chef reminded me. “Betelnut was a huge success. So I went back to Pan-Asian to broaden our base, because in San Jose there are lots of other Asian people, particularly lots of technologists, from all across the continent.”

Asia Live will be making its debut at what has become the hottest shopping and entertainment center in the Bay Area, and Chen’s excitment is palpable. “Santa Clara is vibrant. We’re very friendly with Westfield, because we’re partners in the Paris deal at the Carrousel de Louvre,” he says, referring to the capacious Asia Live slated to open in the former Printemps space adjacent to the Louvre Museum in 2026. “They’re a French company, and Westfield Valley is their most successful mall.

“Our location is right on the outside, an extension facing Santana Row,” George explains. “It’s just a great spot. We’re not in the mall, it’s a semi stand-alone building. You’ve probably heard of Din Tai Fung. They’re inside the mall—buried inside the mall, and it’s really hard to find. The place is only 8,000 square feet, and they’re doing $25 million.”

The 350+ seat outparcel was originally built for iChina, and it’s hard to imagine a better location for the Chens’ new project. “Eataly is kitty-corner to our spot, and we’re right across from Mastro’s,” George says. “It’s called Restaurant Row. Go down just a little further and you’ve got Gucci, Prada, the Apple Store and all the rest.

“Asia Live  will be at the main entrance. Westfield wants us to become the beacon, and draw even more people,” George says. “And Valley Fair already does substantially more business than Santana Row. Valley Fair does a billion and a half dollars.”

Meanwhile, having navigated a sea of troubles, including a pandemic and a drawn-out feud with their former landlord (the Chens prevailed), China Live is still chugging along in Chinatown. “It’s been touch and go. We’re surviving, and on our way to thriving,” George reports. “But for our volume, we should be killing it. Because our costs are so high.

“I wanted to get a soft-serve machine? I had to get a license for soft-serve. I’ve never heard of such a thing! To sell our sauces, we had to get a canning license, and that took us about nine months, and cost a few thousand dollars,” George tells me.

“Mayor Breed was not anti-business, and she always said she was going to get rid of all the excessive fees and licenses to do business here,” he says. “But it seems like the current system doesn’t allow much change to happen—at least not that we’ve seen.

“You know, these problems have been going on forever. The politicians and the nonprofits scratch each other’s backs, and they keep the same old arrangements going,” George says. “We’ve got a $16 billion budget, and we can’t get people off the streets? We can’t manage this perception problem?”

As San Franciscans, most of us have asked these questions—and like many of us, the restaurateur has a healthy suspicion of nonprofits. “The heads of some of these nonprofits make half a million to a million dollars a year. These are our tax dollars,” George emphasizes. “Things like this are ingrained in our system. In many ways, it’s not an efficient city.

“We’ve got real problems downtown. The vacancies, the broken bus stops….we just had the health care conference here, and sure, you didn’t see that many street people. But it still doesn’t look good,” he stresses. “This is supposed to be one of the richest communities anywhere.”

Of course, tourism has been the center of San Francisco’s economy for over a century—and its lack is probably the single most important drag on our rebound. Ever since Covid began, the news media has been airing negative coverage of San Francisco, focusing on our worst neighborhoods: think mobs of shoplifters, open-air drug markets, and filthy streets. And while we have our problems like any big city, some of these stories make San Francisco look downright post-apocalyptic.

It’s frankly dishonest, and you can find the same on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram: images that paint the city as a wasteland, often posted by users a thousand miles away. It’s enough to make people think twice about coming to San Francisco—and if you look at the numbers, that’s precisely what they’ve been doing.

Meanwhile, the reality on the ground is often different from what’s reported. Despite all the doom-loop talk about downtown, the past couple of years have seen a lot of new openings in food and beverage: in 2022 and 2023, there were more than twice as many openings downtown as closings. Restaurateurs still believe in San Francisco, and like the Chens, they’re putting their money where their mouth is.

“I hear the Crustacean people are supposed to be opening right down on Montgomery and Pine,” George says, referring to the long-running Polk Street Vietnamese fusion trailblazer.

Indeed, Crustacean is set to open, in the same Financial District ‘hood where celebrity chef Tyler Florence is busily building his new iteration of Wayfare Tavern. Meanwhile, just blocks away Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green recently broke ground on Meski, a high-profile project which will mingle Caribbean, Dominican, and Ethiopian influences.

On this side of the city, North Beach has also seen a surge of post-pandemic investment. Both North Beach Restaurant and Park Tavern recently reopened after prolonged closures, and buzzy newcomers like Flour & Water Pizza, Golden Sardine, April Jean and Lillie Coit’s abound. North Beach is back on the map, and the move to outdoor seating seems to have left the neighborhood healthier than it’s been in years.

For his part, George Chen keeps his eyes on the horizon. “We’re here, we’re optimistic, and hoping to expand. We’re very close to a deal in New York, they’re coming out to see us soon,” George reports. “Upper Midtown, the best location in New York.”

Having known the Chens well since China Live’s debut, and having watched the project evolve over the past eight years, I have high hopes for their new ventures. There’s one lesson I’ve learned watching owner/operators in this remarkable city: if you work hard and persevere, you can prevail in the toughest conditions.

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China Live
644 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-8188
ChinaLiveSF.com

This column reports regularly on business and culture in San Francisco. We’ll be back to speak with George Chen again about his upcoming projects, so make sure to bookmark us. See you soon!