Sometimes you can go home again.
James Beard Award-winning chef Charles Phan confirmed Monday to The Standard that he will reopen his renowned Vietnamese restaurant the Slanted Door in the same Mission space where it debuted nearly three decades ago. He expects the restaurant to reopen in spring 2025.
The homecoming has been a long time coming. Phan opened the Slanted Door in 1995 at 584 Valencia St. Then the restaurant hopscotched around the city, occupying space at 100 Brannan St. before landing in 2004 at the Ferry Building Marketplace. Once the top-grossing restaurant in California, the Slanted Door operated for more than 15 years out of its prominent space anchoring the upscale Embarcadero food hall. But at the onset of the pandemic, it went dark. Phan insisted it would eventually reopen.
In May, he confirmed that the restaurant would not return to the Ferry Building due to the high cost of renovating the space.
But not long after, an opportunity arose. The restaurant’s original home at 584 Valencia St., which had been occupied by the short-lived bar Chezchez and Bon Voyage — both owned by the team behind Trick Dog — became vacant. Phan, who owns the building, thought: “There’s an empty chair, maybe I’ll go sit in it.”
Of course, the stretch of Valencia Street has changed dramatically since Phan pulled up stakes in 2001 — back when he sold shaking beef for $9 and spring rolls for just four bucks. But he insists he’s not concerned about returning to a neighborhood whose restaurant scene has been badly battered by the ongoing economic impacts of the pandemic.
Phan — who recently listed for sale his four-bedroom, loft-style home on Fillmore Street — has lived in San Francisco since age 15 and attended Mission High School. He remembers when Union Street in Cow Hollow was the hottest place to open a restaurant, and the buzziest dining spots sat just off the busy lanes of Van Ness Avenue. If there’s one thing he can count on, it’s that the city will continue to change. “You’ve just got to believe in it,” Phan said. “Be the chicken or the egg, I don’t care. Just be one of them.”
Before next spring, Phan will take 584 Valencia St. “down to the studs,” he said. When he acquired the space more than two decades ago, he laid tile himself and scrimped on expenses like the air conditioning system. Now, he’ll give the building the update it deserves.
When he’s done, the space will accommodate a modest 100 seats, compared with the 250 he had at the Ferry Building. With fewer customers and more room to cook, Phan plans to put more complicated dishes on the menu. Food prep will take place at the off-site commissary kitchen attached to his counter-service sandwich shop Chuck’s Takeaway. He’s tight-lipped about exactly what diners can expect; the Slanted Door team plans to travel to Vietnam for research this fall.
Fans should brace themselves for a new menu that may not include some of the restaurant’s greatest hits. “If you’ve been doing the same thing for 30 years, they’re going to want you to do the same thing,” Phan said. “But I don’t want to do the same thing.”
As San Franciscans await the restaurant’s return, the Slanted Door locations in Napa, San Ramon, and Beaune, France, remain open. Fans can also order meals online through the Slanted Door Supper Club.