We promised you an update and What Now San Francisco is here to deliver. New details have emerged about Bacogai, a new Vietnamese fusion hotpot restaurant under construction along the Alameda Tidal Canal. As it turns out, the concept is brought to us by veterans of Bay Area Burmese restaurant, Burma Superstar.
Co-owner Emily Le tells What Now San Francisco that she is opening Bacogai with her high school best friends, Khanh Tran Kim and Kayla Bui. While attending college, the trio worked together at Burma Superstar, which currently has three locations in the Mission, Oakland, and Alameda.
Since then, the friends have set out on different paths: Le currently works in real estate, Bui is a financial analyst at UCSF, while Kim is the manager at Burma Superstar’s Mission location. Still, their combined years of experience in the industry have remained close to their hearts.
“We really enjoy working together and being able to provide exceptional customer service in a restaurant setting,” Le says. “We decided to open our own restaurant together inspired by our shared Vietnamese background.”
“We’re all used to Szechuan and Taiwanese-style hotpot found everywhere throughout the Bay. But what a lot of people might not know is that Vietnam has their own style of hotpot also. The difference is in the broth,” she adds.
Bacogai’s hotpot broths are inspired by what you can find served on the streets of Vietnam. Their signature broth will be a pho-like base that is made with oxtail. They also have a seafood-style broth, as well as Bún Riêu, a crab and tomato flavored broth inspired by the noodle soup dish of the same name.
Le points out that Bacogai will not be an all you can eat hotpot restaurant. Instead, they will serve pre-arranged toppings depending on the type of broth you order. This is likely due to the careful selection of organic Asian vegetables and high-quality proteins that are expensive to source en masse for an AYCE format. At the moment, Bacogai is in talks with a couple international vendors from which they will source their high-quality Japanese also featured on the menu.
The space is also outfitted with a pretty large back patio overlooking the canal. Le is not sure yet if they will use it as a bar space or for more hotpot stations. Either way, hotpot and sake al fresco sounds like the perfect way to spend evenings this spring, when Bacogai plans to open.
Bacogai will be located in Suite E at 2651 Blanding Ave. in Alameda. For more information, visit bacogai.com.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that owners of Bacogai met while working at Burma Superstar. They actually met in high school and worked at Burma Superstar while attending college. Additionally, Bui is a financial analyst at UCSF, not a researcher.
