A huge new café wants to change the game for S.F. Korean food
Sohn will open Aug. 16 at 2535 3rd St. in Dogpatch, the former home of bagel shop Daily Driver. Deuki Hong, a prominent Korean-American chef who's run several restaurants and bakeries in the Bay Area, is a co-founder and operator, along with managing partner Janet Lee, a San Francisco native and founding partner of Hong's Sunday Family Hospitality Group.
Sohn will be a café during the day and offer workshops and events in the evenings. A retail section is stocked with Korean-American goods, from instant coffee to soap, curated by Maum, a specialty store in New York City and Los Angeles.
In the U.S., those two cities, and not San Francisco, have long been known for their strong Korean food scenes. That's shifted in recent years, however, with notable local arrivals including chef Corey Lee's Michelin-starred San Ho Won in San Francisco; tofu specialist Joodooboo in Oakland; multiple locations of kalbijjim specialist Daeho; and mega-popular Korean food complex Jagalchi in Daly City.
'It's always L.A. It's always New York,' Hong said. 'It's time the Bay Area starts playing a bigger conversation in where Korean food is going in America.'
Sohn will serve casual Korean-inspired fare, like a rice bowl with soy-marinated soft boiled egg with Korean herbs and chili; jook (rice porridge); and a patty melt with Korean barbecue beef and kimchi slaw ($16). Thick slices of sourdough toast ($13), courtesy of the nearby Neighbor Bakehouse, which Hong also operates, will be topped with charred avocado, pickled jalapeños and onions and drizzled with gochugaru oil. A sweet toast incorporates ricotta and housemade strawberry cheong, a Korean fruit syrup. Preserved condiments like cheong and pickles will be made in a fermentation room on site.
Korean café culture, which is slowly seeping into the Bay Area through trendy drinks like the einspänner, will be a focus. Sohn will brew specialty coffee roasted in partnership with Frank La of Be Bright Coffee in Los Angeles. Expect drinks like an espresso tonic with yuja (Korean citrus) and perilla. Korean staples inspired other creations, including housemade banana oat milk lattes, an homage to the boxes of banana milk Hong and Lee drank growing up, made with espresso, matcha or hojicha. Two drinks, a soda and matcha latte, channel the flavor of the beloved Melona brand ice cream bar.
The former Daily Driver space is massive and industrial, with an upstairs mezzanine that looks down onto the open kitchen. Cathie Hong, a Korean-American interior designer in the Bay Area, revamped it to feel more like a cozy, chic home, with lime-washed walls, large Noguchi hanging paper lanterns, plants and lounge areas with couches. They added 12 seats to a front counter. The owners hope Sohn (derived from the Korean word for 'hand') will be a social third space, with rotating art installations and plans to host collaboration dinners and cooking classes. They're excited to be part of a wave of openings in Dogpatch, spurred in part by the major redevelopment of Pier 70.
Hong, who was born in Korea and came to the U.S. at a young age, trained in Michelin-starred kitchens before opening a slew of Bay Area food businesses, including Sunday Bird, ice cream shop Sunday Social and a café at the Asian American Museum in San Francisco and Oakland's Sunday Bakeshop, all of which have since closed. Last year, he published his second cookbook, 'Koreaworld.'
Sohn. Opening Aug. 16. 2535 3rd St., San Francisco.
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