San Francisco's Chinatown is caught between past and future

Ho Chee Boon, one of the most celebrated chefs in San Francisco, was about to lead me on a walking tour of Chinatown, where his new restaurant stands.

"I want to play my part to bring business back and elevate Chinatown," he said. "If you see the cover of a book, if it's attractive and interesting, you will open the book. I want to do this with the restaurant."

But this was no simple stroll because of COVID-19, because the neighborhood is changing and because the chef's impressive credentials are global, not local. With the start of the Year of the Tiger, nobody is sure where this Chinatown is headed.

If you question the merchants of Chinatown, which amounts to about 24 blocks, many old-timers say an era has ended. Some blame the pandemic and cite rising xenophobia. Some blame Amazon for undermining their bricks-and-mortar livelihoods. Some blame the rising tourist appetite for experiences and Instagram fodder instead of conventional merchandise.

These problems have hobbled Chinatowns across North America, including Los Angeles and New York, and they take on a special resonance in San Francisco, home to this continent's oldest Chinatown.

Ho, 48, who grew up in Malaysia and won his Michelin stars far from here, first saw San Francisco in 2011 and moved to the Bay Area only three years ago. Yet he and his new restaurant may be a crucial clue to what visitors will find in Chinatown for years to come.

The restaurant, Empress by Boon, towers over Grant Avenue, Chinatown's main tourist drag, and in some ways it's a sequel to years gone by: From the 1960s