It's Over

Sam Wo after hours (Stephen Lam/Chron)

Last month we lamented the imminent demise of San Francisco's Sam Wo restaurant. Alas, there was no white knight:

After 117 years (with a three-year pause during its relocation to 713 Clay Street), the Chinatown institution served its last barbecue pork noodle roll on Sunday...It feels both poignant and fitting that Sam Wo shut its doors just days before the Lunar New Year.

Sam Wo's closure is due to two commonplace factors: changing tastes and the inability of a family operation to find anyone in the next generation(s) with the desire and ability to run the business. The latter was the missing ingredient, because there appeared to be enough sentiment from Chinese-American fans, near and afar, to provide the capital to keep it going.

Sam Wo had a good run, but it's finally over.