The Asian is trying hard to bring in more hip, young, rich techie types that have been infiltrating SF forever. They're also trying to get more non-Asians interested. I actually thought Boba Guys was owned by white people - they had white employees(!) & lots of white customers.
When I first saw Bin Chen's pic, I thought he was hapa. Then I looked more carefully & decided he's just a white-looking & acting full Taiwanese guy. He went to U. of Texas, Austin (totally explains it) & was an art director before going into the hipster beverage business. Bin is so whitewashed he bleeds it - his clothes, look & body language. I'm surprised he partnered w/Andrew Chau; they seem like very different types of Asians, based on these pics. I'm familiar w/the Chau type; he seems like a Bay Area native - went to Cal, has an MBA. Bin definitely seems like he grew up in a white area, maybe TX.
The Asian is making a smart move by bringing these kids in. Their old cafe was terrible--bad food/service, ugly/cliched tableware.
Museums are trying to get more business by appealing to young, upscale, trendy hipsters. Boba Guys taking over the Asian's cafe is just another step towards what's been going on for years - cool museum nights, trendy events, "young professional" memberships, beautiful architecture. Back in the day, museums were old school/conservative. These days, in SF at least, museums are some of the hippest, most youthful places around - intellectual, artsy, edgy, aspirational cool.
The menu sounds ghastly to a vegetarian. Please throw in a few delicacies for us.
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tea leaf salad and matcha buns are convincing enough to make me eat vegetarian for an afternoon.
The last paragraph? Why not hire an experienced older chef from Chinatown? Ditto for Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Korean, Indonesian, Tibetan.
Instead hire a bunch of younger guys who think that authenticity isn't necessarily a good thing, multi-cultural is better. With no discernible culinary training, they'll learn dishes from other Asian cuisines on the fly. Nothing to it, I mean rice is rice and a wok is a wok.
At a museum specifically devoted to Asian art? Maybe have some inauthentic Asian art on display. Say a Warhol imitator who happens to be Asian. Remember, the museum and their wealthy patrons signed off on this.
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I'm a "Friend" of the museum and I'm really excited for the new cafe, and I think your characterization is not reflective of the article at all. Anyway, I doubt the museum has the space or money to create a United Nations of chefs for an international Asian food court, but does have many exhibitions on Modern Asian art that certainly reflects cultural interchange, from their exhibit on Japanese art's influence on the Impressionists, to contemporary Korean fashion. I think you have very strange ideas about authenticity that might be challenged if you spent more time in museums and less time sounding like a curmudgeon on the internet.
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They have a high bar. I don't know what possessed the Asian Art Museum to change their restaurant. It was just about perfect -- a peaceful, stylish setting with delicious, affordable food. I'm sad to see it go.
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Are Indians not Asians? There is certainly Indian art in the museum.
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Social media era trendy way to perpetuate the clichés, that's innovative!
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“You’re never going to be as good as guys who’ve been doing it for generations.”
I like this guy.
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“If it’s not as delicious as this place I go to in Chinatown — ”
well... spill. we're waiting.
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Regarding the assertion: "In recent years, museums across the country have tried to shed their reputation for drab cafeteria fare and woo visitors with destination restaurants."
Have personally found good (and affordable) cafeterias at a number of American museums (and certainly in Europe). Seems odd for the writer to present "drab fare" as a broad brush "fact"when it is actually an opinion.
As for the predilection for expensive " destination" restaurants...
In some cases these come about because wealthy board members seek them and push them.
And as more and more museums develop these expensive eateries (sometimes taking away space from the affordable cafeteria) a message is sent - only the affluent really count.
The Bronx Botanical Gardens is one such example - a few years changing its airy, comfortable cafeteria into an expensive restaurant.
The replacement cafeteria is small, cramped, noisy and with mostly packaged food. It sends a message - inequality is OK even at a jewel of a public resource.
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@ LS NYC
One might extend your thoughts that wealthy board members have their hand in the till of the museum restaurants. After all, "money does not smell" -- pecunia non olet.
I belong to the Asian and typically eat there during visits. I go for the art and I can get dishes with an Asian influence that are delicious, healthy, and fast without spending an arm and a leg and having to think about having a “dining experience.” I hope the planned street-carts can offer the same. SFMOMA had a decent cafe but with the new building came a swanky restaurant completely out of reach of the everyday visitor. I find many efforts to create a total museum visiting experience—dining, cocktails, DJs and dancing— are distractions from museums’ missions focusing on collecting, scholarship, programming, and education.
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It's a conflict for museums to appeal to the elderly who make up so much of the donor class and a next generation of museum goer who appreciates events and experiences, and will be the museum's future. Thankfully, for those who don't appreciate these events there is a simple solution - don't attend. A museum's focus of collecting, scholarship, programming and education doesn't happen without money.
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Deep fried chicken and starchy balls in giant drinks packed with sugar and canned juice do not make healthy food! The obsession with boba drinks reflects the lack of real innovation in the beverage industry. Silly.
Maybe they could do more than just make good food and also focus on sustainability - something that San Francisco is supposed to be known for. Giving out disposable chopsticks and plastic straws wrecks the image of progress they are trying to put forth.
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What a delightful column! I am so pleased to hear of this innovative approach to museum food. I love food trucks in San Francisco ... particularly those in Golden Gate Park on a Sunday. I plan on being at the Asian Art mid March especially for this experience .
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This all sounds good, but "Prices will be gentle"? For whom? Hard to believe in San Francisco.
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This is great--making a whole museum experience, especially since the museum is not close to any restaurants in the immediate vicinity.
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The Asian is a block from Little Saigon - full of restaurants.
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Glad to hear about this. I haven't been to that museum since they moved from GG Park to downtown. Sounds like it's time for a return visit....
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Yes! Best museum in the city.
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Yes, it IS the best! If you go soon, don't be put off by the construction about to begin. There's a reason it's being called "the transformation!"
There's a strong sense of passion and also a welcome air of humility these days of not-so-humblebrag...well said by the chefs and well written by Ligaya Mishan.
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Best of luck, would love to see similar no -stuffiness dining options at other museums that aren't just overpriced airport food or white tablecloth mausoleums for overpriced fare. Currywurst carts at the Neue Gallerie? Soba stand at the Asia Society? Yes please!
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@ Jen in Astoria Astoria, NY
Yes, I agree with you about "no-stuffiness" in Asian, Amerindian, and African eateries. But there should be some decorum observed. If one does not like it, one can eat with hands and fingers in the privacy of one's own home.
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Neither currywurst nor soba is eaten with fingers. Where is this aggression coming from? Do you really think that eating Asian food calls for throwing away decorum? What?!!?
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Actually, this new eatery will be extremely stuffy - in the SF hipster way. SF hipsters are just as stuffy, if not more so, than old school stuffy, which we're actually not that familiar with in SF. The Boba Guys was typical SF hipster, and the Sunday Chicken was as well.