Wagyumafia’s Plan For SF Outpost Whacked

Wagyumafia, a Tokyo-based purveyor of high-end beef cutlet sandwiches, won’t be coming to San Francisco after all. Local restaurateur Kash Feng (Omakase, Okane, Dumpling Time) tells Eater SF that a planned partnership with the brand, announced last summer, has fallen through, forcing local diners to find other ways to blow through their dining budgets.

Feng originally hoped to prominently feature Wagyumafia beef, including its coveted $180 wagyu sandwich, at his forthcoming steakhouse and butcher shop projects. Those ventures and another one, an udon noodle restaurant, are still moving forward at One Henry Adams, a new apartment development in the Design District. But Wagyumafia will be headed elsewhere.

“While we’re still good personal friends with the Wagyumafia owners, and still buy our wagyu beef from them for our restaurants, we’re no longer partnering with them on the new butcher shop concept at One Henry Adams,” Feng said. The problem: “Had it been their exclusively branded concept, as originally planned, the meat selection would have only been the high-end Wagyu beef Wagyumafia distributes.”

“To better serve the neighborhood and community, we decided that a wider selection of meats was the way to go,” said Feng. “Wagyumafia will still be one of our suppliers at the butcher shop, but we’ll also offer the highest quality meats and poultry from American farms, at a range of price points. Wagyu is still a focus, but not the only one.”

For those still seeking Japanese beef cutlet sandwiches in San Francisco, the Omakase Group’s butcher shop plans to serve one made with Kobe beef, a wagyu variety. The three new Design District businesses are expected in “the second half of 2018” according to a spokesperson for the restaurant group.

• Tokyo’s Wagyumafia Brings Criminally Expensive $180 Sandwich to San Francisco [ESF]
• Tokyo’s $180 Wagyu Beef Sandwich Will Debut in SF At $595 Dinner [ESF]