As the sun set on downtown San Francisco on Thursday, Cristy Egamino and four family members set up camping chairs outside Jollibee on Market Street. It was more than 12 hours before the Filipino fast-food chain’s highly anticipated opening the following morning, to ensure that they would be first in line. As stalwart Jollibee fans who regularly drive to the Daly City location for fried chicken and spaghetti, they took turns sleeping to safeguard their spot.
By Friday morning, a snaking line of fans formed behind them. The first 100 received a free year of chicken — one six-piece bucket per month — and an “I Heart Jollibee SF” T-shirt. Kris Andres arrived at 7 a.m. wearing a Jollibee fleece onesie, complete with a faux formal bow tie and mini white chef’s hat, which he purchased from the company’s merch store two years ago to wear on opening day. “And that day is here,” he said.
A giant inflatable bucket of Jollibee “chickenjoy,” its signature fried chicken, sat on the roof of the building while Jollibee’s mascot, a red-and-yellow striped bee with a bow tie and chef’s hat, greeted fans. Just before doors opened at 9 a.m., an emcee led a countdown from 10, and the Egamino family officially became the restaurant’s first customers.
It was a celebratory moment after six years of bureaucratic delays that city officials, including Mayor Daniel Lurie, are now using as a case study for how to make it easier for businesses to open in San Francisco. During a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, Lurie thanked Jollibee executives for their “persistence and investment in San Francisco” and pointed to a new online permit system now available through his PermitSF initiative, which he said has issued 1,500 permits in its first five months…