On Friday, a giant inflatable bucket of fried chicken hoisted above Market Street signaled the arrival of a day six years in the making: Jollibee is finally open in San Francisco. The line of more than 200 people stretched down Market and halfway up Mason Street into the Tenderloin as a DJ and multiple hosts with microphones hyped up the crowd and quizzed them on their favorite dishes from the beloved chain.
Ervin Baccay was in line by 5:30 a.m. after taking the first BART train over from Berkeley. His friend Hannah Chea, who lives in SF, met him in line. They secured positions 41 and 42, earning them one year of free Chickenjoy fried chicken and “I Heart Jollibee SF” T-shirts that went to the first 100 customers. Their neighbors higher up in the line told them they’d been on Market Street since 7:30 p.m. Thursday, they said. (According to Jollibee, the first person in line actually arrived at 7:15 p.m.)
The two said they have been friends since attending UC Berkeley together six years ago — basically the same amount of time Jollibee has been haggling with the city to open. While the beloved Filipino fast food chain’s first U.S. outpost was in the Bay Area — the Daly City restaurant opened in 1998 — San Francisco has been without a Jollibee since the location near Moscone Center closed in 2011.
Baccay swears he heard rumors of the chain returning to SF back in 2016. During that decade, he has earned three degrees, gotten married and bought a house, he said, making this moment a long time coming. But it’s his heritage that brought him to Jollibee on Friday. “For me, I’m Filipino, it’s kind of cultural. … It’s something that we’re proud of,” Baccay said. “And it’s really good food!”…