“It’s expensive to be Asian in The City.' Economic upheaval has caused a cascade of sad effects: the closure of mom-and-pop shops such as Tong Palace; the displacement of lower-income residents; and a growing loss of cultural identity in the Richmond.
In the summers of my childhood, my grandmother would take me to the old Sweethut Cafe on Seventh and Clement, where we sipped cold nai cha and nibbled on steaming cha siu bao as the morning fog rolled in from the upper avenues. We were locals of this foggy patch of the city, four generations of our family having lived within its cramped streets and narrow corridors.
Opened in 1985, Taiwan Restaurant is recognizable by its pastel pink facade and window display of golden yu char kway, a type of Chinese donut that is lightly salted and eaten alongside rice congee or sweetened milk. According to Redfin.com and Zumper.com, housing costs in the Richmond have skyrocketed to upward of $1.8 million since the mid-1990s — when the median price of a San Franciscan home was about $300,000 — while the current average rent of a one-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood sits at over $2,300, signifying that the area’s home prices and rental costs are both about twice the national average.
The Sweethut Cafe — the last place I remember drinking nai cha with my grandmother as we watched the fog pour in from the Outer Richmond — shut down after rent increases pushed its owner into an early retirement, leaving a dilapidated shell and empty storefront behind.
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