Top California restaurant known for dim sum closes after 27-year-run 

Even Michelin-praised dumplings can’t survive in a struggling downtown San Francisco.

Famed Dim Sum empire Yank Sing is officially throwing in the towel on its sprawling flagship at the Rincon Center — after 27 years of pushing carts and folding dumplings.

The retreat from the once-prized Embarcadero-adjacent location is just one more blow to a section of town that has struggled to shake out of its post-pandemic doom loop narrative.

The restaurant’s Spear Street location’s final day of service will be on September 20, owners confirmed on social media.

“From grand celebrations to casual weekday lunches, this location has been home to countless memories, and we’re grateful for every guest who’s shared a meal, a milestone, or a favorite dish with us here,” the statement wrote.

Yank Sing was founded by George and Alice Chan, who escaped communist China and first set up shop in 1958. The Rincon Center lease had reached its end, the family said — and they declined to renew.

Instead, the plan is to consolidate operations into their smaller, Stevenson St. outpost.

The closure of the massive flagship serves as an unmistakable sign of the times.

At its peak, weekend crowds spilled into the Rincon Center atrium, filling the restaurant’s roughly 500 seats, with diner still struggling to find a table, per the San Francisco Chronicle.

Lately, the dining room is reportedly “hardly full,” according to reports — with many online complaining that the food is simply too expensive for what it is.

The dim sum downsize is just the latest domino to tumble across the San Francisco’s urban core.

Just up Market Street sits the ghost ship that was once the city’s crown jewel: the 1.5 million-square-foot
San Francisco Centre.

Once valued at an eye-watering $1.2 billion, the defunct mall spiraled into distress after retail giants Nordstrom and Bloomingdales packed their bags amid widespread reports of shoplifting and social disorder in the area and within the once-chic complex.

Soon after, the mall’s owner, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, stopped paying its loan and turned the property over the lenders.

A $130 million deal to offload to property to Presidio Bay and Prado Group fell apart in July after the developers determined that the mall, which sits on land owned by San Francisco Unified School District, would be too costly to redevelop.

The property is worth no more than $130 million now, per the WSJ.

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