Eviction battle at downtown San Francisco mall as restaurants dwindle

Earlier this month, Julie’s Kitchen restaurant owners Jisoo and Julie Yoo received a 30-day eviction letter from its landlord PGIM Real Estate, an entity under the Prudential umbrella, which stated that Julie’s Kitchen was facing eviction after failing to make $500,000 in annual sales, per a clause in its lease. The San Francisco Chronicle first reported the eviction news. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)

According to the eviction letter dated Nov. 10, and shared with SFGATE, part of Julie’s Kitchen’s lease stated that the landlord had the right to terminate the lease with a 30-day notice if the “tenant’s annual Gross Sales for such Lease Year is less than $250.00 per rentable square foot of the Premises.” According to the Chronicle, the Julie’s Kitchen space is about 2,000 square feet. According to the eviction letter, Julie’s Kitchen earned $420,606 in gross sales during 2020 to 2021 compared with $149,435.92 between 2022 and 2023.

The Yoos challenged their landlord’s eviction notice with a message posted to their restaurant website where they called the eviction “unjust.” In the memo, the Yoos said they had “faithfully paid our rent and maintenance fees in full and on-time” and increased sales despite the challenging pandemic years.

“The landlord’s lawyer has gone so far as to use inaccurate and cherry-picked revenue numbers in an attempt to create a false narrative that revenue has been declining during those three years of the pandemic; even when full and accurate revenue numbers show an increase every year,” the memo reads in part. “Since the pandemic mandates officially ended in May of 2023, we’re proud to announce that Julie’s Kitchen has surpassed revenue thresholds. Nonetheless, the Crocker Galleria Mall landlord is still attempting to evict us.”

The downtown buffet-style restaurant signed a lease at Crocker Galleria in March 2015, according to the eviction notice. Not long after, Julie’s Kitchen allegedly faced trouble with Crocker Galleria management team, JLL — a real estate firm — according to a statement Jisoo emailed SFGATE on Monday.

“Over the past six years, Julie’s Kitchen has been subjected to deceptive tactics and negligent behavior by the management team of the Crocker Galleria Mall,” Jisoo wrote. “This past October, we met with the landlord (PGIM) and the manager (JLL) to discuss all of the challenges that Julie’s Kitchen endured by the management team. However, their response came a month later in the form of an absurd lease termination notice.” SFGATE asked for more details but did not hear back from the Yoos in time for publication.

Crocker Galleria first opened in 1982. In 2019, the owners of Crocker Galleria announced their plans to give the 1980s mall a $30 million face-lift, which would include adding more restaurants to the space’s existing 35 shops and dining selections at the time. The Yoos told the Chronicle that the landlord allegedly attempted to relocate Julie’s Kitchen twice and then attempted a buyout in 2019.  

Once Julie’s Kitchen vacates Crocker Galleria, the downtown mall will only have two restaurants: Ladle & Leaf and La Luna Cupcakes. SFGATE reached out to PGIM Real Estate for comment but did not hear back by publication.