“By some measures we’re successful,” said Steve Joo, the chef-owner of Joodooboo, “but we’re barely scraping by.”
It’s a statement that might surprise some, considering the measures of success: In 2025, Joo was part of Food & Wine Magazine’s annual class of best new chefs, the first in the Bay Area to make the list in four years. Earlier this year, the James Beard Foundation named him as a 2026 semifinalist for its emerging chef award. And the other week, Joodooboo landed at No. 14 on this year’s Chronicle Top 100, shooting up 27 places from No. 41 last year.
But the Bay Area continuesto bea difficult environment for restaurants, and Oakland, where Joodooboo is based, appears to be particularly challenging, with a string of high-profile closuresin recent years, even in the wake of being positioned by multiple national publications as the most exciting food city in America…