Far East Cafe, one of the oldest restaurants in San Francisco’s Chinatown, will close permanently at the end of the month, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Far East Cafe opened in 1920. The 15,000-square-foot, 2-story restaurants is one of the last two remaining banquet restaurants in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The restaurant has been the used for Lunar New Year luncheons, weddings and political fundraisers throughout the years.
But after 100 years, the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing the restaurant to close. Owner Bill Lee told the Chinatown Wind Newspaper that Far East Cafe can’t survive on takeout alone.
“That’s really sad to see that Far East is closing because it’s one of the best restaurants in Chinatown,” Domingo Ortiz, who works nearby, told ABC 7.
Far East Cafe isn’t the only Chinatown business that has struggled during the pandemic. Several Chinatown business owners say they applied for a small business loan but were denied, according to ABC 7. The cafe’s closing has prompted many Chinatown leaders to call for greater support from the city.
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“What do we want our city to look like? Are we going to be like a typical suburbia with just Targets and big stores left? Is that what we want? The fabric of our city is being torn apart right now,” Eva Lee of the Chinatown Merchants Association told ABC 7.
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