Jew is fresh-faced and easygoing, but don't let that fool you. He's earned his stripes in several of San Francisco's top restaurants, most recently Bar Agricole, where he was head chef. And he's about to face an even brighter spotlight. He's opening his own restaurant at the Grant Avenue site of the now-shuttered Four Seas. People have dined and held banquets at that spot since the late 19th century.
"He's going to bring a whole new generation back to Chinatown. He's going to bring some life," said Betty Louie.
Louie is the building's landlord, and she is well-known in Chinatown for her efforts to revitalize the neighborhood with new attractions. For example, she recently placed life-size replicas of China's famous terracotta warriors on one of her other Grant Avenue properties. Now she's turning to the food scene.
"Food is important anywhere you go, but more so for Chinatown at this point in time," Louie said. "There are no really first-class restaurants here. We are the largest Chinatown in America, the most well-known. Why shouldn't we have a good restaurant?"
Make no mistake: Chinatown is still a major food destination. Even President Obama went out of his way once to drop in for dim sum. But as San Francisco real estate prices continue to soar, a lot of people here are nervous about anything that looks like gentrification. Specifically, they worry that if this neighborhood gets trendy with the tech crowd, it could go the way of the Mission District, where gourmet groceries and organic juice bars are rapidly replacing taquerias and bodegas.
Mabel Teng directs the Chinese Culture Center, a nonprofit that works to preserve and promote Chinatown's rich artistic heritage. She says they welcome new restaurants, including Mr. Jiu's and a much larger food enterprise opening next year called China Live. But it's not clear to her whether they will do much for the residents and businesses that are already here.
Teng especially wonders whether their clientele will support all of Chinatown, or merely see it as "an entertaining ground ... to just pop in for a dinner."
"We want them to walk on the street. We want them to buy fresh produce and special artist-made products," Teng said. "We just want them to respect the integrity and the vibrancy of the people who live here."
Well-known Bay Area chef George Chen says he plans to do just that with the China Live project.
"I think it will open a lot of eyes," he explained during a tour of the massive complex under construction on Broadway.
Chen says China Live's mission is to demystify Chinese food and culture and make it more accessible. It will include two restaurants, a cafe and an emporium selling organic ingredients and authentic Chinese cookware. At practically every turn, Chen says visitors will learn about where the food comes from and how it's prepared.
"The more you know, the better they'll understand the products and the fear will go away," Chen said. "And I think the larger community will be happy about what we're doing."
Meantime, Brandon Jew is hoping Mr. Jiu's will bring the ABCs back to Chinatown -- ABC being shorthand for American-born Chinese. He's one, and when he was growing up in the Marina District, he often went to Chinatown to attend weddings and a special birthday celebration called a "red egg" party.
"You eat suckling pig and a bunch of eggs that are dyed red," Jew said. "I haven't been to one since I was a kid."
Jew says he's restoring his restaurant's upstairs banquet hall to once again make a space for those traditions. He says it's his way of ensuring Chinatown remains the place he has always known and loved.
