Chinatown Food Hall Scuttles Seattle Expansion Plans Post-Pandemic

Welcome to p.m. Intel, your bite-sized roundup of Bay Area food and restaurant news. Tips are always welcome, drop them here.

• China Live has scuttled plans to open a Seattle outpost as the future of remote work remains in limbo. The popular restaurant and food hall in San Francisco’s Chinatown had announced its second location, a 13,000-square-foot complex, just prior to the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Now, as Amazon workers may not return to neighboring offices, the project has been called off. “It’s not the right concept and the right location, because Amazon, like any big secret company, they’re not going to tell you whether their employees are going to be able to work remotely or not,” owner George Chen told Eater Seattle. New York or Chicago could be the next destination for the project.
• The last living co-founder of The Cheese Board, Berkeley’s worker-owned market and pizza shop has died at 91. Elizabeth Valoma co-founded the shop in 1967 with husband Sahag Avedisian, just as Berkeley’s food movement was gaining steam. The shop was sold to its workers in he early ‘70s, creating a model for other cooperatives, like Arizmendi, throughout the Bay Area. [SFGate]

• Eater’s New Guard has been announced, bringing fresh new voices to the forefront of the dining conversation around the country. The Bay Area is well-represented, with chefs and activists alike. Read all about them here.
• One Market will reopen on May 5 after a year of closure, adding items from its interim pop-up, Mark ‘n Mike’s New York Style Delicatessen, to the menu. The pop-up’s full menu of deli delights (including Boichik Bagels) will be available at lunch, while select items like fried chicken will be available at night alongside the restaurant’s typical contemporary Californian cuisine.