Closings

Third-Try Shanghai Closes in Former Mecca Space

Photo: Ed U./ Yelp

As the Scoop is reporting, via a sign posted outside, Shanghai has shuttered after four and a half months in the former Mecca space at 2029 Market. Restaurateur Francis Tsai, some might say stubbornly, tried for a third time to make a go of it with a Chinese restaurant in the ground floor space of the building, after both attempts in 2011 and 2012, Pudong and Gingerfruit, failed to draw crowds and each closed just months after opening. Shanghai was the biggest bet Tsai placed so far, having partially remodeled the dining room and reconfigured the bar, but as we observed after it opened, it still didn’t feel markedly different enough from the original bones of Mecca, which many in the neighborhood still identify with the location four years after it closed. Tsai had said earlier that he struggled to find a good tenant for the space, and decided he was his own best tenant. [Scoop]

Third-Try Shanghai Closes in Former Mecca Space