Demand up for San Francisco's The Slanted Door: new landmark digs make restaurant a hot dining destination

Nation's Restaurant News, May 3, 2004 by Alan J. Liddle

SAN FRANCISCO -- The relocation of The Slanted Door, a contemporary Vietnamese sensation here, to a spacious, permanent bayfront setting in the landmark Ferry Building has unleashed a wave of diner demand and projections for especially buoyant first-year sales.

"$10 million," The Slanted Door's executive chef and co-owner, Charles Phan, declared while forecasting full-year volumes based on trends at the weeks-old, 224-seat restaurant, bar and lounge. That figure excludes potential revenues from a retail operation to sell Vietnamese-style sandwiches and meal kits that Phan and his family are developing in the adjacent Ferry Building Marketplace.

The Slanted Door's new physical plant includes an L-shaped dining room with floor-to-ceiling glass walls on two sides that offer spectacular views of San Francisco Bay. The restaurant regularly does more than 700 covers daily with average tickets of about $18 at lunch and $40 at dinner, according to Phan, who heads up the family-owned business at which many of his immediate and extended kin work.

Principal architect Olle Lundberg of San Francisco-based Lundberg Design has said his firm's abstracted water images form the narrative for the new restaurant's design, which includes 12- to 14-foot-high ceilings vaulted into such a manner as to suggest "crashing waves."

Strong consumer response to The Slanted Door and other high-profile, moderately priced San Francisco newcomer restaurants, such as Town Hall, comes at a time when some of the city's high-end dining establishments continue to report wild swings in business. The high-tide reception for Phan's relocated eatery also comes as several local casual-dining operations with conceptual glitches or less-attractive sites are failing or closing for makeovers.

However, the booming business at Phan's new bayfront location leaves him with little time to weigh market trends elsewhere.

A Vietnamese native of Chinese ancestry, Phan immigrated to San Francisco with his parents and siblings in 1977. Because his parents worked two jobs, he often was called on to cook for the family. He went on to study architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and worked in the clothing design and software fields for a time. He opened the original Slanted Door in 1995 on Valencia Street in San Francisco's Mission District.

To accommodate a renovation of that building, The Slanted Door was relocated first to a vacant site on Brannan Street in 2002. That venue's larger seating capacity and bar and the neighborhood's higher income level helped annual sales nearly double to $7.2 million from $3.9 million, Phan said.

The availability of an even larger space in the Ferry Building, along with talk of higher occupancy costs at Brannan Street and delays in the Valencia Street remodeling convinced the family to move the flagship concept one more time. After a brief closure to transfer equipment and employees, The Slanted Door opened at the Ferry Building April 5.

A family spokesman said the Valencia Street building would feature a "street food" restaurant concept when it reopens.

The 106-year-old Ferry Building, with its large clock tower, which was one of the few survivors of the legendary 1906 earthquake, is a picturesque anchor of San Francisco's revitalized embarcadero. Once a key transportation hub, the newly renovated structure today is home to an array of purveyors specializing in artisanal breads, cheeses, coffees, confections, meats, produce and shellfish, among other foodstuffs.

Phan has said his restaurant vision was inspired by the famed Chez Panisse in neighboring Berkeley and Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, among other establishments known for straightforward preparations of high-quality produce from small, local farms. Phan's modern take on traditional Vietnamese foods, influenced in part by his mother's Franco-Vietnamese cooking at home, and his preference for organic and small-farm produce were lauded from the start by critics and foodies.

The continuation of the dining public's love affair with The Slanted Door is evident in the brisk sales at the Ferry Building site and critical acclaim, such as the restaurant's ranking as San Francisco's fourth-best food-and-beverage establishment by the 2004 Zagat Survey dining guide.

The Slanted Door's dinner menu includes such dishes as daikon rice cakes with shiitake mushrooms and shallots, $8.50; catfish clay-pot with cilantro, ginger and Thai chilies, $17.50; caramelized shrimp with garlic, organic onions and chili sauce, $15.75; and "shaking" beef, or cubed filet mignon with garlic and organic red onions, $21.50. Also sold are Vietnamese beef carpaccio with rau ram, peanuts and lime juice, $9.50; organic sugar snap peas with blue oyster mushrooms and garlic, $9.50; fresh Dungeness crab meat with cellophane noodles, $15.50; and grilled free-range rack of lamb with potatoes and tamarind sauce, $26.50.

Unlike the situation at many Asian restaurants, desserts and wines contribute a significant amount of sales, sources at the restaurant indicate. Meyer lemon pudding cake with lavender ice cream, warm banana walnut strudel with vanilla ice cream and vanilla bean creme brulee, all $6, were recent selections from pastry chef Mutsumi Takehara's dessert menu.