Bay Area restaurateur Hoyul Steven Choi, who popularized the sweet, peppery “millionaire’s bacon” found on breakfast menus throughout the city, is opening three new restaurants in 2020.
On Jan. 2, Choi opened a second outpost of his restaurant Kitchen Story at 5422 College Ave. in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood. Kitchen Story’s flagship location in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood opened in 2013 with a Thai-inspired menu. In Oakland, Choi has shifted the dining options to feature more Korean flavors.
Available only at the Rockridge spot are Korean dishes like jjapaguri, which is a playful mix of Korean instant noodles (a version is featured in the film “Parasite”) served with millionaire’s bacon and an egg; Korean fried chicken and waffles; and jjamppong, a spicy seafood noodle soup.
“I’m a Korean immigrant and I’ve always wanted to do something where I could 100 percent say whether the food or the recipes were right,” Choi said. “I couldn’t do that completely with the Thai menu but with this, I’m getting back to my roots.”
Next to open will be a third outpost of U :Dessert Story in Berkeley next month at 1849 Shattuck Ave. The Instagram-friendly confections spot is known for desserts like mango sticky rice bingsoo (Korean snow ice), and a number of matcha lattes and floats. The Berkeley menu will be similar to what is offered at the U :Dessert Story locations in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow and Castro neighborhoods.
Choi’s last project of 2020 will be a Sweet Maple at 150 University Ave. in Palo Alto in August, the brand’s third outpost including one at San Francisco International Airport, which opened last year, and the original 10-year-old Pacific Heights location. French toast stacks, sandwiches and eggs Benedict will anchor the menu at the forthcoming Sweet Maple, similar to the others.
Choi immigrated from South Korea to San Francisco in 1984 and opened his first restaurant, the Taylor Street Coffee Shop, in Union Square in 2002. His business portfolio also includes the Marina’s American-Thai restaurant Blackwood, Kitchen Sunnyside in Mill Valley, Berkeley’s Social Club and Surisan at Fisherman’s Wharf.
As for how Choi has been able to quietly grow a mini-empire at a time when hundreds of restaurants are closing every year, Choi credits much of the success of his concepts to millennial diners. The millionaire’s bacon — a thick-cut strip covered in cayenne pepper and sugar — struck a chord with that crowd, he said, the same way avocado toast took off with diners of the same demographic.
“My restaurants are facing the same difficulties as everyone else, whether it’s labor costs, regulations and rising rents. There’s no secret recipe for success,” Choi said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, so the team I have knows the business. We’re careful with our projects and we just make sure they fit what people want and what we want to do.”
Kitchen Story. Opened Jan. 2. 5422 College Ave., Oakland. U :Desert Story. Opening in February. 1849 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. Sweet Maple. Opening in August. 150 University Ave., Palo Alto.
Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @JustMrPhillips
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January 09, 2020 at 07:00PM
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Kitchen Story, U :Dessert Story, Sweet Maple to open new locations in 2020 - San Francisco Chronicle
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