HRD Espresso Store, a San Francisco Favourite for Kimchi Burritos, Is Closing After 70 Years in South Seashore
After 70 years in San Francisco and a change of ownership that resulted in an imaginative menu update attracting several TV shows to its doors, HRD Coffee Shop has closed.
The San Francisco Standard first reported the news, and owner Sydney Saidyan confirmed the restaurant would be closed on Friday, June 23. He says the pandemic has exacerbated problems with the landlord; Because of some of these issues, the restaurant was unable to add outdoor dining, adding to HRD’s losses. “I’ve lost confidence in my partners, in other words the city and the landlord, to really see us as their valued partner,” says Saidyan. “We realized that when we’ve done everything we can, we basically can’t go on, and we couldn’t really get to the point of saying we can go on for another year or two.”
As the Standard reports, HRD Coffee Shop was founded by Ben Chan, an immigrant from China who wanted to open a breakfast spot in the China Basin. He opened HRD in 1953 — rumored to be named for the “HRD” on the front of the human resources office where the restaurant began — and eventually passed the business on to his nephew David Yeung and partner Joanna Banks in 2009. They brought Saidyan into the restaurant business, enriched the menu with his unique brand of kimchi and bulgogi burritos that fused Asian ingredients with Mexican food, and led to appearances at Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Saidyan says Yeung left the company three years ago and has been the sole owner ever since.
As for the HRD Coffee Shop story, Saidyan doesn’t think that’s the real ending. Citing various catering appearances at the Giants and local businesses, as well as the numerous reviews on Yelp and Google praising their restaurant, he says HRD will carry on — whether he’s at the helm or someone running the business and its various activities takes over trademarks and patents. He would prefer the San Francisco restaurant to continue, but indicated to the Standard that he would be willing to move the restaurant elsewhere. “After 70 years, our story is a story of perseverance and of an immigrant who came to this country,” Saidyan says. “I have never seen myself as the owner, but as the steward of this man’s legacy. We did everything we could, but unfortunately it takes two to tango.”
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