Mister Jiu's facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mister Jiu's |
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| Restaurant information | |
| Established | April 2016 |
| Current owner(s) |
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| Food type | Cantonese |
| Rating |  (2016–present) |
| Street address | 28 Waverly Place, Chinatown |
| City | San Francisco |
| County | San Francisco |
| State | California |
| Postal/ZIP code | 94108 |
| Coordinates | 37°47′37.46″N 122°24′24.08″W / 37.7937389°N 122.4066889°W |
Mister Jiu's (Chinese: 周先生; pinyin: Zhōu xiānsheng) is a special Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, San Francisco. It has won a Michelin star, which is a big award for restaurants. Mister Jiu's is known for its Cantonese cuisine (food from a part of China) mixed with new ideas from Californian cooking.
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The Story Behind Mister Jiu's
Before Mister Jiu's opened, the building was home to other famous Chinese restaurants. First, there was Hang Far Low, which opened way back in the 1880s. Later, the Four Seas Restaurant took its place in 1960. The Four Seas Restaurant was very popular for over 50 years. But in 2013, it closed down. Around that time, many restaurants in San Francisco's Chinatown were struggling.
Who is Brandon Jew?
The chef behind Mister Jiu's is Brandon Jew (周英卓). He is a Chinese American who grew up in San Francisco. When he was in college, he started working in restaurants. He began by clearing tables, then bringing food to guests, and finally, he got to cook! He earned a college degree in biology in 2001.
After college, Brandon traveled to Italy to learn more about cooking. He worked as an apprentice chef in places like Piedmont and Bologna, where he learned to make delicious Italian food. When he came back to San Francisco, he worked at several well-known restaurants, including Quince and Zuni Café. At Zuni Café, he learned a lot from the head chef, Judy Rodgers. Later, he even went to Shanghai to study Chinese cooking even more.
The first floor of the Mister Jiu's building has a fun gift shop. It sells things like magnets and toy crickets.
Opening Mister Jiu's
Chef Brandon Jew rented the large, four-story building in 2013. It took him almost three years to get everything ready. He found people to invest money and worked hard to fix up the old building to meet modern safety rules. He even moved the main entrance to a different street, Waverly Place. The kitchen and dining room on the second floor were opened up so guests could see the chefs at work. Brandon also ran a Kickstarter campaign, where people could donate money to help him open the restaurant. He raised over $67,000!
Mister Jiu's opened its doors to the public in April 2016. The name "Mister Jiu's" comes from Brandon Jew's last name, "Jew," but spelled in a Chinese way (pinyin). When it first opened, the team included Brandon Jew as the main chef, Melissa Chou as the pastry chef, Sara Hauman as the sous chef (second-in-command), and Danny Louie as the bar director.
The dining room on the second floor can seat 85 people. It still has some beautiful old decorations from the Four Seas Restaurant, like gold lotus chandeliers and fancy lights. You can also see great views of Chinatown and other parts of San Francisco from the windows. Outside, there's a special green area called a parklet where people can eat outdoors.
Today, Brandon Jew and his wife, Anna Lee, own Mister Jiu's. Many talented chefs who worked at Mister Jiu's have gone on to start their own successful food businesses.
What's on the Menu?
The menu at Mister Jiu's changes with the seasons, using fresh ingredients. Brandon Jew's cooking is inspired by his grandmother's old Cantonese recipes. He has learned and written down many of them. His dishes mix these traditional Chinese flavors with new Californian ideas.
When the restaurant first opened, it offered a five-course meal. Some of the dishes included a lotus root salad, hot-and-sour fish soup, Shanghai rice cakes, steamed Alaskan halibut, and house-smoked oysters. They also had extra dishes like tea-smoked duck and a black-sesame cake for dessert.
Later in 2016, the menu featured dishes like fried rice with beef tenderloin, beef tartare with jalapeños, and rice noodle rolls with lobster or uni. They also served roasted quail and different desserts like Black Sesame Cake and Coconut Dessert.
In 2019, some popular items on the menu were Dutch Crunch BBQ Pork Buns, Sourdough Scallion Pancake, and Crispy Scarlet Turnip Cakes. They also had Potstickers, Salt-Baked McFarland Springs Trout, and Liberty Farms Roast Duck, which is a special kind of Peking duck.
Brandon Jew also wrote a cookbook called Mister Jiu's in Chinatown with Tienlon Ho. It was released in 2021.
Moongate Lounge
| Moongate Lounge | |
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| Restaurant information | |
| Established | March 2, 2019 |
| Current owner(s) |
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| Food type | |
| Street address | 28 Waverly Place |
| City | San Francisco |
| County | San Francisco |
| State | California |
| Postal/ZIP code | 94108 |
| Country | United States |
The very top floor of the building used to be a big banquet room for the Four Seas Restaurant. It was still being fixed up when Mister Jiu's first opened. But almost three years later, in March 2019, Brandon Jew and Anna Lee opened a new place there called Moongate Lounge. It's a sister bar and lounge located upstairs from the main restaurant. Moongate Lounge is a large space with high ceilings.
The design of Moongate Lounge is inspired by moon gates, which are round openings often seen in traditional Chinese architecture. The lounge also kept some of the original features from the old Four Seas Restaurant. There's a beautiful old painting from the 1940s on the wall. It shows two of the Eight Immortals (famous figures in Chinese stories). The lounge also has original brass lights and old redwood beams on the ceiling.
Moongate Lounge serves different food and drinks than the restaurant. Their menu changes with the lunar calendar (based on the moon's cycles). They have special cocktails named after moons, and others based on Chinese seasons. The food menu includes dim sum dishes like Crab Rangoon, char siu bao, and salt-and-pepper squid. They also have a large dish called the Four Seas banquet chicken, named after the restaurant that was there before.
Other Businesses by Mister Jiu's
Mister Jiu's has also started other cool businesses.
Grand Opening Pastries
In summer 2019, the restaurant launched a side business called Grand Opening. It was run by Melissa Chou, who used to be the pastry chef at Mister Jiu's. Grand Opening makes Chinese-inspired pastries that change with the seasons. Some of their treats include different kinds of pineapple buns, "wife cookies," and special pies. This pastry shop is open on weekends on the first floor of the restaurant. It closed for a while during the COVID-19 pandemic but reopened in August 2021.
Soon and Soon Souvenir Shop
On December 18, 2021, Mister Jiu's opened another business called Soon and Soon Souvenir Shop. It's located at the Grant Avenue entrance to the restaurant. The shop sells fun merchandise, Chinese baked goods, coffee inspired by Hong Kong, and drinks. The shop is named after Brandon Jew's grandfather's old laundry business.
