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Steve Joo (center right) chats with customers at Joodooboo in Oakland during dinner service in\u00a02024.<\/p>\n
Adahlia Cole\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
A fried booboo set at Joodooboo on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024.<\/p>\n
Adahlia Cole\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Steve Joo chats with a customer at his restaurant, Joodooboo, in Oakland, as photographed in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adahlia Cole\/Special to The Chronicle<\/p>\n
Dongchimi, left, and Napa cabbage kimchi photographed at Joodooboo in\u00a02022.<\/p>\n
Stephen Lam \/ The Chronicle<\/p>\n
Freshly-made dooboo, or Korean tofu, with napa cabbage kimchi photographed at Joodooboo in Oakland, California Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022.<\/p>\n
Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
\u201cBy some measures we\u2019re successful,\u201d said Steve Joo, the chef-owner of Joodooboo<\/a>, \u201cbut we\u2019re barely scraping by.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a statement that might surprise some, considering the measures of success: In 2025, Joo was part of<\/a> Food & Wine Magazine\u2019s annual class of best new chefs<\/a>, the first in the Bay Area to make the list in four years<\/a>. Earlier this year, the James Beard Foundation named him as a 2026 semifinalist for its emerging chef award<\/a>. And the other week, Joodooboo landed at No. 14 on this year\u2019s Chronicle Top 100, shooting up 27 places from No. 41 last year. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n What allows Joodooboo, which opened in 2022<\/a> as a humble Korean deli offering banchan made with seasonal, local produce and homemade dooboo, or tofu, to persevere is an ongoing commitment to its craft; a community-oriented, diversified revenue stream; and the sense of care shared between its staff. It\u2019s a model for how scrappy restaurants can stay ambitious and survive challenging times.\u00a0<\/p>\n Diners outside at Joodooboo as bicyclists pass by on Market street in Oakland in 2024.<\/p>\n Adahlia Cole\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n For those reasons,\u00a0Joodooboo is the San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s first-ever Rising Star Restaurant, awarded to an establishment that has operated for fewer than five years but is poised to have a lasting influence on the way the Bay Area dines. We previously anointed classes of Rising Star Chefs<\/a>, but beginning this year, the Food + Wine team will recognize restaurants in their entirety to better reflect that it\u2019s an entire staff that makes a restaurant great, from the front-of-house to the prep cooks to the dishwashers, to, yes, the chef.\u00a0<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Joodooboo describes itself as \u201ca California banchan shop for freshly made dooboo and hyper-seasonal vegetable preparations that are inspired by Korean flavors and local ingredients.\u201d It has evolved into something more over the years, with increasingly elaborate dishes, such as the acorn noodles with kimchi, nori vinaigrette, and choice of jammy egg or dooboo, or the \u201cmelt-in-your-mouth albacore ssam\u201d at dinner that led Chronicle critic Cesar Hernandez to declare Joodooboo one of the Bay Area\u2019s most exciting Korean restaurants<\/a>, notable given a veritable boom in the genre<\/a>. Now, a full dining room is a common sight. \u201cWe started making the joke that \u2018oh, we\u2019re a restaurant now,\u2019\u201d Joo said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Acorn noodles at Joodooboo, photographed in\u00a02024.<\/p>\n Adahlia Cole\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n Dooboo and banchan remain the soul of the operation, with Joo and three apprentices painstakingl y\u00a0making fresh dooboo every day<\/a>. The process begins<\/a> by soaking organic soybeans overnight, then grinding and mixing them with water to produce soy milk. After the soy milk is filtered, it\u2019s boiled in a specialized machine imported from South Korea. As the soy milk boils, the team skims foam from the surface by hand while waiting for it to thicken. The vat is placed in ice water, a step which helps create softer curds by speeding up the cooling process. A coagulant and sea salt are slowly mixed in, then the solution rests before the curds are placed into molds and the whey naturally separates. The process yields a dooboo that is delicate and jiggles as it makes its way to a table.<\/p>\n Joo, who is always looking to improve on his methods, said that after years of making dooboo daily, he\u2019s noticed lots of small details, such as the way curds form and how temperature changes affect the process. \u201cIt\u2019s been a really fun evolution and study of the process to make it better,\u201d he said. \u201cThat philosophy permeates into everything that we make, where there\u2019s a lot of simplicity on the face of things, but then there\u2019s a lot of intention given to preparations.\u201d<\/p>\n Blocks of freshly made Korean tofu, also known as\u00a0dooboo, at Joodooboo.<\/p>\n Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n Joo and manager Sarah Kasai regularly hit the farmers market to pick through seasonal vegetables that will be fermented into kimchi or prepared alongside the dooboo, tapping into his experience at Chez Panisse and St. Helena\u2019s now-closed Terra<\/a>, which guides how he works with seasonal produce. \u201cWe\u2019re all paying attention to what\u2019s coming in and then thinking about ways to be playful,\u201d Joo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As spring settles in, diners may find snap peas with artichoke. Once summer arrives, banchan may include squash in a Korean-style garlic marinade or a jangajji \u2014 typically pickled vegetables \u2014 made with apricot. The team made its first batch of persimmon kimchi last fall, and it became an instant hit. Kasai is personally waiting for it to return. \u201cIt\u2019s the best,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The restaurant is only part of the Joodooboo story. \u201cOne thing that\u2019s particularly challenging about our operation is that we kind of have a lot of different moving parts even though outwardly it seems pretty simple,\u201d Joo said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a lot to keep track of and manage, organize and execute from a very limited amount of space.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you know we do all that because it\u2019s kind of necessary to stay afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n Roughly 70% of Joodooboo\u2019s revenue comes from the restaurant. The remaining 30% comes from retail, including weekly appearances at three Bay Area farmers markets, and subscriptions to its weekly dooboo and banchan sets. Managing those subscriptions and ensuring that customers can receive or pick up their weekly orders is one of Kasai\u2019s most important roles, since they bring in a steady cash flow that has helped the restaurant through slow periods. Customers \u201cjust keep showing up for us and it\u2019s awesome to know people want us to be a regular presence in their lives and diet,\u201d Kasai said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Customers outside at\u00a0Joodooboo on Aug. 15, 2024.<\/p>\n Adahlia Cole\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n Despite ever-increasing operating costs and other\u00a0headwinds, Joo prioritizes taking care of his employees. He said that he is often researching ways of providing a better health insurance plan at a lower cost. He also tries to pay his crew as fairly as possible, especially given the Bay Area\u2019s high cost of living. \u201cIt\u2019s a real priority to not screw my crew out of being paid fairly for their labor,\u201d Joo said, adding that he didn\u2019t pay himself during Joodooboo\u2019s first two years in business.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n With four years at\u00a0Joodooboo, Carlos Santiago is the restaurant\u2019s longest tenured employee. He arrived in Oakland from his native Guatemala seven years ago and was once a cook at Nuym Bai, the acclaimed Cambodian restaurant from chef Nite Yun of fellow Top 100 restaurant Lunette<\/a> in Oakland. Santiago started out as a dishwasher, but as Joodooboo has grown, so have his opportunities, and he now is a line cook, where he works on refining his banchan techniques with the rest of the team. \u201cThat\u2019s one thing that I like about Steve, he will personally show you what you need to know,\u201d he said in Spanish. \u201cI make the food with all my heart and am very thankful for everyone who visits us.\u201d<\/p>\n Joodooboo has been through \u201cmany tough phases\u201d but thanks in part to its staff\u2019s sense of camaraderie, they\u2019ve managed to endure, Kasai said. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool having a team where genuinely everybody cares about each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Steve Joo and staff from Joodooboo accept the award for Rising Star Restaurant during the San Francisco Chronicle Top 100 event at the San Francisco Design Center on April 6.<\/p>\n Adam Pardee\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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