100-year old Chinatown restaurant closure imminent; rescue plan on the way

PINTEREST

Only one row of private booths remain at the Far East Cafe, that used to have all booths for diners.

OPINION

Updated Dec. 24, 10:30 a.m. to include Aaron Peskin's proposal.

One of San Francisco Chinatown's oldest restaurants, the fabled Far East Cafe, will be closing Dec. 31 -- victimized by the necessary safety restrictions imposed in order to fight the coronavirus.

But on Wednesday, San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin pleaded with the restaurant owner Bill Lee, not to shutter his restaurant. The supervisor says he's introducing a $1.9 million relief proposal aimed at helping Chinatown's struggling restaurants. 

I loved taking out-of-town visitors to the Far East. It wasn't the food so much, as the atmosphere the 100-year old restaurant evoked. It was like stepping into a movie with dark wood paneling and ornate Chinese lanterns. 

In an impromptu news conference in front of the restaurant on Grant Avenue, Peskn blamed anti-Chinese racism fueld by Trump blaming China for the pandemic. He pleaded for Lee and his investors to hold off on plans to closed down Dec. 31.

I always asked for a table in one of the booths. Along the way, as we passed the other wood-paneled booths I'd take a peek behind the curtain, hoping to uncover a  politicians making a deal, business people closing a transaction or perhaps a spy in a clandestine meeting.

Hearing Peskin's plea, Lee just shrugged. "We keep losing money each day. All our shareholders have a few meetings. We decide to close down the end of this month," Lee told a KTVU reporter.

Without the tourists, the Far East was having problems when outdoor dining was allowed, but under the stricter guidelines allowing only takeout, owner Lee told the Wnd Newspaper that takeout isn't enough to pay the rent and pay the staff. 

The Far East opened in 1920 in the midst of the Chinese Exclusion Act in a segregated San Francisco. It has survived the changing palates of the Bay Area's foodies to continue serving  familiar Cantonese and American Chinese fare.

Far East is one of the last Chinatown restaurants that had the banquet space to host  the large weddings, birthdays, family reunions and celebrations like Chinese New Year's (which has been cancelled in 2021). It is noisy and when it's busy, the waiters can be brusque, but it was an experience that is disappearing under the coronavirus pandemic.

The fate of the Far East is just the latest  sign of the economic distress being felt by all the businesses in tourist-oriented Chinatown.

The family-owned restaurants and souvenir shops in Chinatown are getting hit hard by the coronavirus and might not be able to survive the pandemic restrictions. 

Businesses say they have been appealing to the city for financial assistance, and claiming they were denied federal loans, most of which are going to big corporations instead the multitude of small businesses. Sam Chen of Magical Ice Cream tells ABC News that he attempted to get a small business loan but was denied, and the same goes for New Age Camera.

Eva Lee of the Chinatown Merchants Association says that San Francisco is at risk of seeing the ethnic enclave in a wholesale death spiral if Peskin's relief plan doesn't materialize.

RELATED: America's Chinatowns fighting gentrification

In addition to the coronavirus, Chinatowns are feeling pressure from rising rents. Because most Chinatowns are located in high-valued downtown areas, rents have been increasing and the threat of gentrification is driving many of the low-income residents and small businesses out of the area.

The U.S. Census reported that there are over 2 million Asian American-owned businesses across the nation. With 42% of them in "Accommodation and Food Services" and "Retail" industries, versus just 21% of all businesses, Asian American businesses have been hard hit.

As a result, unemployment among Asian Americans, once low, has spiked to unprecedented levels since so many Asian Americans work in those hard-hit service industries.

During the pandemic, however, Asians experienced unemployment rates higher than Whites, peaking at 15% in May 2020. Even as the economy started to improve and the unemployment rate began to drop in recent months, the recovery for Asians was slow, and unemployment remained uncharacteristically high.

Chinatowns across the country were already seeing a decline in business due to the  Trump administration's trade war with China, and racial profiling of Chinese visitors, students and researchers and amplified with Trump's xenophobic rhetoric and with the coming of the coronavirus at the beginning of the year, fear replaced anxiety. With the advent of social distancing, self-quarantines and the mandated dining restrictions, business only got worse.

If the Far East Cafe closes its doors at the end of the year, not only will San Francisco's Chinatown  be left with only one restaurant able to handle the large banquets popular in the Asian American community, the city will lose a part of its heritage.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is news laced with opinion. We encourage you to review several news sources to form your own opinion.