{"id":420010,"date":"2026-07-31T21:44:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/420010\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T21:44:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:44:47","slug":"jollibee-returns-to-san-francisco-after-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/420010\/","title":{"rendered":"Jollibee returns to San Francisco after 15 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristy Egamino and her family showed up for Jollibee\u2019s grand re-opening at 7:45 p.m. The restaurant didn\u2019t open until 9 a.m. the next day.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, said Egamino, the family\u2019s home isn\u2019t too far away. At 6 p.m., Egamino\u2019s son Darren staked out the area when he got off of work. At 7:45, she, Darren, and two other family members all took shifts holding their space in line, before officially convening to wait collectively for the final four hours at 5 a.m. this morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cJollibee means family,\u201d Egamino said, minutes before the doors opened at 934 Market Street at Fifth.<\/p>\n

\"FiveCristy Egamino and her family pose with the Jollibee mascot at the grand opening at 934 Market Street. Photo by Aaliyah Espa\u00f1ol-Rivas.<\/p>\n

As a reward for being first in line, Egamino won a punch card that could be used for one free six-piece Jollychicken bucket every month, for the next 12 months, and a Jollibee swag bag. Behind her, a line of over 100 people eagerly waited, many sitting on folding chairs they brought for the long wait. The company\u2019s mascot, Jollibee himself, worked the line, posing for selfies and doing the occasional little dance in front of a poster that read \u201cI heart Jollibee\u201d and \u201cJollibee is here!\u201d The 99-odd people behind Egamino got Jollychicken punch cards , an \u201cI heart Jollibee SF\u201d shirt, and inflatable cheering sticks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the ceremony, Jollibee officials hailed the new location as the first in San Francisco \u2014 though many people in line knew it wasn\u2019t true.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI went every weekend to the old one, I\u2019m not sure why it closed,\u201d said Perla Areanas, who was 48th in line. \u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s closer to me now, I\u2019m gonna go every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"APerla Areanas and Maria Theresa Fortes pose with their Jollibee-branded cheering sticks in line at the Jollibee opening. Photo by Aaliyah Espa\u00f1ol-Rivas.<\/p>\n

Jollibee,<\/a> which is the largest fast food chain brand in the Philippines, has 1,600 locations across the world. For over a decade, one of them \u2014\u00a0a Jollibee at 200 Fourth St., across from Moscone Center \u2014\u00a0was a hub of the Filipino community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Egamino, who used to be a caregiver at Woolf House Apartments \u2014 where the former Jollibee was located, used to frequent the restaurant every day after work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe went there every day and brought Jollibee home to us,\u201d her son Darren Egamino said. \u201cWhenever she was tired from her shift, or just wanted a taste of comfort, Jollibee was there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the Fourth Street Jollibee opened in the early 2000s, Filipino food was scarce in San Francisco. Like JT Restaurant<\/a> (originally known as \u201cNew Pilipinas\u201d when it opened in 1994) it was a destination for homesick residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the case of Jollibee, home could take the form of\u00a0 \u201cJolly Spaghetti,\u201d\u00a0 (classic Filipino spaghetti made with banana ketchup and chunks of hot dog), peach mango pie, and gravy (which can be eaten with everything, and is arguably the best thing on the menu). The first Jollibee in the United States had only opened a few years earlier, debuting on June 12, 1998 in Daly City \u2014 a city known for its heavy Filipino demographic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Moscone location \u2014\u00a0and the attached Red Ribbon bakery, the source of many local birthday cakes \u2014\u00a0 quietly closed in 2011. But it lingered in the collective memory, appearing in, among other things, a walking tour of SoMa<\/a> put together as part of Work in Progress<\/a>, a show about the neighborhood\u2019s history at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts..\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rumors of the return of Jollibee circulated for years after its demise. \u201cI remember stories back in 2016 that the location was going to open,\u201d Ervin Baccan, a Bay Area native and UC Berkeley graduate, said. \u201cTen years later and three degrees later, they\u2019re just opening. I feel like this opening has been in the background of my life, just waiting to happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PeopleHannah Chea and Ervin Baccan pose as 41 and 42 in line. Photo by Aaliyah Espa\u00f1ol-Rivas.<\/p>\n

In 2020, when news broke that Jollibee\u2019s name was on a business permit filed for 934 Market, there was much rejoicing. But then the pandemic, and then multiple city permitting issues \u2014\u00a0 including installing new utility lines, meeting noise requirements, and exterior changes \u2014 pushed the opening further and further into the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new Market Street location is part of a 15-location Jollibee Northern California expansion that will take place over the next eight years, led by George Almeida<\/a>, perhaps best known as the owner of the last Fuddruckers in California<\/a> (it\u2019s in Concord).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bay Area is Jollibee<\/a> heaven,\u201d Almeida said, in a trade journal interview.<\/a> \u201cFrom the demographics, we have one of the largest Filipino communities in the country. Jollibee\u2019s strongest asset is its reputation among the Filipino community in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe Jollibee mascot shows off merch worn by a patron. Photo by Aaliyah Espa\u00f1ol-Rivas.<\/p>\n

After the doors officially opened. Egamino\u2019s son, Darren, was the first to order. He ordered two pieces of Chickenjoy, Jolly spaghetti, and a pineapple quencher. \u201cTastes like home,\u201d he said, after the first bite. All around him, people took pictures with the Jollibee mascot, took videos, and recorded themselves eating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love Jollibee,\u201d Cristy Egamino said. \u201cI\u2019m happy I can finally bring my family here and we can all share this food together. Sarap Sarap (delicious, delicious)!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe Jollibee mascot poses inside the restaurant. Photo by Aaliyah Espa\u00f1ol-Rivas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristy Egamino and her family showed up for Jollibee\u2019s grand re-opening at 7:45 p.m. The restaurant didn\u2019t open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105,1911],"class_list":["post-420010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-soma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}