One of the city’s most impossible-to-land reservations is about to get even tougher. The Happy Crane — the modern Chinese restaurant that opened in August to widespread critical acclaim — is hosting four collaboration dinner events that will bring some of the country’s highest-profile Asian American chefs, restaurants, and bars to Hayes Valley in celebration of the Lunar New Year.
The schedule includes three ticketed dinners, including a Feb. 11 event with Sun Moon Studio, the Oakland restaurant that both The New York Times and Bon Appetit magazine named among the best in the country. The other two will feature Menlo Park’s Taiwanese-Korean restaurant Yeobo, Darling, which was lauded by Chronicle food critic MacKenzie Chung Fagen as being “in a class of its own,” and Good Morning 96, a much-anticipated restaurant from rising chef Gizela Ho. Those dinners will be held Feb. 28 and Feb. 4, respectively.
A fourth event will bring New York City’s 929, a moody cocktail den inspired by Cantopop and Mandopop, to The Happy Crane’s bar for a takeover and DJ set Feb. 21.
Kalbi and banchan at Yeobo, Darling, in Menlo Park. | Source: Courtesy Chad Santo Tomas
Dungeness crab longevity noodles at The Happy Crane. | Source: Courtesy Jeremy Chiu
The Happy Crane chef James Yeun Leong Parry says he wanted to pull out all the stops for Lunar New Year, the biggest holiday of the year in Hong Kong, where he spent his childhood before moving to London.
Parry previously joined forces with Sun Moon Studio co-chef Alan Hsu when he was cooking at Oakland’s Pomet. Parry also knew Ho, who has been overseeing the kitchen at Rich Table for three years, from when he hosted pop-ups at the Hayes Valley restaurant. He hasn’t yet cooked with Meichih and Michael Kim of Yeobo, Darling, but Parry has leaned on the couple for advice as they’ve all navigated the ups and downs of running hot new restaurants.
Parry has tapped designer Christine Trac of Abacus Row to fille the dining room with decorations and floral installations. Trac’s Chinatown jewelry boutique has become known for its annual Lunar New Year pop-up, during which its front windows are filled with mountains of fresh mandarins.
Parry will add three items to The Happy Crane’s à la carte menu so diners can partake in the holiday without attending the ticketed dinners: lo hei, a raw seafood dish sometimes called “prosperity salad”; green garlic and roasted radish cakes; and Dungeness crab longevity noodles.
Green garlic and roasted radish cake at The Happy Crane. | Source: Courtesy Jeremy Chiu
Parry hopes to make The Happy Crane’s Lunar New Year celebration an annual tradition, and given the Bay Area’s seemingly insatiable appetite for Asian cuisines — from his own modern take on traditional Cantonese dishes to Yeobo, Darling’s blending of Korean and Taiwanese influences — he’s not surprised that seats have been selling fast. “I think we’re just at the beginning,” he says. “We’re only scratching the surface.”
Reservations for the dinners ($195 per person) and bar takeover ($150 per person) are available on a rolling basis via (opens in new tab)OpenTable (opens in new tab).