Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant Tacorea in Nob Hill will close its doors on June 30, owner David Lee told The Standard.
Lee blamed his restaurant’s decline on low tourism prices and offices left vacant by the home office movement.
“It’s like a perfect storm where everyone goes away, tourism goes down and work from home,” Lee said. “I think it’s a good time to close up shop.”
Lee said the business closures in Union Square, which is near his restaurant, are also demoralizing. Westfield recently announced it was giving up the San Francisco Center, and the mall’s anchor, Nordstrom, has joined a long list of other companies leaving the Union Square area.
CONTINUE READING: The San Francisco Center Mall in Westfield has lost 46% of its business since 2020
Lee had previously complained about the requirements to renew his restaurant’s parking lot and took to Twitter to express his displeasure with the bureaucracy at City Hall.
“Three years later, they’re like, ‘You need to fix this and that and go to the fire department,'” Lee said when reached by phone. “It’s like, ‘Come on, you couldn’t have told us that in 2020?'”
The outside of Tacorea in Nob Hill | Courtesy of David Lee
Tacorea previously had a location in Chinatown, but it closed about a month ago, Lee said.
“It’s basically just an extension of our kitchen now,” Lee said.
Lee and his restaurant have made headlines before. In an incident in February that went viral, he tweeted Mayor London Breed after his restaurant was broken into.
“Mayor Breed, what is happening to our city? When will residents be protected? The windows of my car shattered several times and today my restaurant was broken into. There is absolutely no protection for us in this lawless city. Why do we have to experience this every day?” The Feb. 27 tweet read.
Originally from Burlingame, Lee moved to San Francisco in 2010 and opened Tacorea in 2016.
He said management at a restaurant burned him out, and he said he plans to move to Las Vegas by December.
“I just want to work for a hotel or something — just be an employee so I don’t have to worry about running anything,” Lee said. “I love the hotel industry. I love dealing with people – just not with the restaurant world.”
While he was considering the possibility of reopening Tacorea in Las Vegas, for now, fans of kimchi burritos and “California burritos” stuffed with tater tots only have a few weeks.
“By the end of the month it will all be gone,” Lee said.
