Bodega SF is an evolution of Matthew Ho’s family's restaurant, Bodega Bistro, which operated from 2003-2017 out of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, serving traditional Northern Vietnamese cuisine. The brand’s success continued as Ho organized pop-up events, eventually transitioning to meal packages throughout the pandemic to meet demand. In 2022, Ho and his partners opened Bodega SF’s brick-and-mortar location, again located in the Tenderloin District, bringing high-quality Vietnamese cuisine back to the community with a modernized, casual fine dining experience. The family-style concept allows visitors to sample its variety of authentic, creative dishes.
While Slanted Door is opening this new location in Napa, it all began with an idea to open a Vietnamese crêpe stand or a noodle shop in the Tenderloin neighborhood. Charles Phan searched for a location but was told that there were already too many Vietnamese restaurants in the area. He moved the search to his own neighborhood: the Mission. He quickly found an available space on Valencia Street.The Slanted Door was born in 1995 with the goal of elevating Vietnamese food to the next level—modern design, sustainable local ingredients, quality teas, and wine pairings. The Slanted Door was quickly recognized and became too small to accommodate the reservation requests. The growing restaurant moved to South of Market in 2002. It was there that the team integrated a craft cocktail program, which was one of the first restaurants in San Francisco to offer craft cocktail menus. The Slanted Door moved again to the San Francisco Ferry Building in 2004.
