TV chef icon Martin Yan plans to reopen his M.Y. China restaurant in SF Chinatown
August 18, 2023
TV chef icon Martin Yan has plans to reopen his namesake M.Y. China restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
M.Y. China’s new location: Yan, who permanently closed M.Y. China in November 2020, said that he and his partners at Koi Palace — a mini-chain of restaurants — hope to revive the once-bustling Chinese restaurant with a new location in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
“We’re looking at a couple of locations. One location is Cathy House on California Street and Grant Avenue, which has the cable car stop right there,” Yan told SFGate.
Yan hopes to open two different restaurants at the three-story building. “The ground floor could be the future home to M.Y. China Express, a fast-casual restaurant, where tourists or locals could swing by for a quick bite to eat, whereas the upper level may be the home of either M.Y. China or a similar concept called M.Y. Chinatown,” Yan explained.
Revitalizing Chinatown: Yan, who plans to open the restaurant around Lunar New Year in 2024, hopes to revitalize the Chinatown neighborhood, which suffered amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s no other Chinatown as powerful, historical, beautiful, and as fun as the Chinatown in San Francisco,” Yan told SFGate. “Everybody loves the M.Y. China. It’s not just you come into M.Y. China to eat and enjoy a meal. You can feel the excitement.”
About Yan: The Chinese American culinary legend was previously awarded the 2022 James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1982, Yan was given the opportunity to host his own TV show, “Yan Can Cook,” featuring his signature catchphrase, “If Yan can cook, so can you,” which won him a global following. Since then, he has gone on to dedicate more than 40 years to sharing Asian American cuisine and culture.
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