A young entrepreneur opens a Sichuan hot pot restaurant, Hot Pot Champ, with innovative ideas in San Francisco Chinatown

(SAN FRANCISCO) Allen Qu is a new immigrant coming to the United States from Sichuan Province, China, about two to three years ago during the pandemic. He is also a young entrepreneur and truly believes in San Francisco Chinatown's sustainable future. He is bold enough to make his first significant investment in the United States to open a new restaurant, Hot Pot Champ, in the heart of San Francisco Chinatown.

The 7,500-square-foot and 3-story Hot Pot Champ, located at the busy corner of Kearny and Washington Streets, has just opened for weeks and became one of the largest restaurants in San Francisco Chinatown. This storefront restaurant site had been vacant for over 5 years due to the size of the restaurant which was designed to occupy the entire building.

Qu is a native of Sichuan Province in China. The newly-opened Hot Pot Champ is a restaurant with specialty on the famous Sichuan hot pot food and one of the very few hot pot restaurants in Chinatown.

34-year-old Qu has spent most of his life in the Sichuan Province until he immigrated to the United States to reunite with his parents and a sister during the pandemic. Qu was born and raised in his hometown Chengdu region, the capital of Sichuan Province. He majored in art in college.

"I don't think the office work might fit me well," said Qu in an interview with Wind Newspaper at his new adventure in San Francisco Chinatown. After Qu graduated from college, he did not follow his peers to be an artist, instead he decided to open his first business at the age of 23. It was a boba drink shop in Chengdu.

The boba drink has been very popular among the young generation in China during 2012 when he started his first drink shop. Because of the intense competition among the boba industry, Qu said his first business was not very successful and closed down after a short period of time.

Qu has always enjoyed studying the culture of food and drinks, he tried to start another new business which was a sushi restaurant in Chengdu region. The second try was very successful. Ultimately Qu had opened four sushi restaurants in total until the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak started worldwide in 2020.

It was unprecedented for China and the rest of the world to begin enacting shelter-in-place orders to close down the commercial activities starting in 2020. "Almost all restaurants need to close down in Sichuan at that time," Qu recalled. Qu had no choice and closed all of his four successful sushi restaurants in the early stage of the pandemic in 2020.

Qu's parents and sister had immigrated to the United States way ahead of him. He was already approved for his permanent resident status before 2020. As a result of it, Qu decided to come to the United Stated to reunite with his parents and family during the pandemic.

As a new immigrant, Qu still desired to open his own business once he landed in the United States. His parents have resided at Berkeley over the East Bay for years. Qu had searched for ideal locations in different states and regions in the U.S. for him to open his first Sichuan hot pot restaurant. Eventually he selected San Francisco Chinatown.

When asked why he was interested in Chinatown, Qu said, "I truly believe in San Francisco Chinatown which has a sustainable future."

San Francisco has the oldest Chinatown in the United States. "Our Chinese ancestors came to San Francisco over a century ago to build the railroads. San Francisco Chinatown is one of the biggest attractions to tourists who came from everywhere in the world to San Francisco.," said Qu. "I am not only operating a restaurant, but also I would like to promote the wonderful food of Sichuan Province to everyone around the world, including the famous hot pot food and dining culture. This is a perfect location."

"The Hot Pot Champ will present the best food of of Sichuan to all customers, you may also find the fusion food here in our restaurant among the fresh food and soup bases," Qu further said. "People always think that Sichuan food is all spicy, In fact, there are many delicious Sichuan dishes which are not spicy at all. We have many choices for the customers to choose to know more of the tasty Sichuan food."

As a young entrepreneur, Qu is also eager to bring in more innovative ideas to run his new restaurant. Robot Waiter, a food delivery robot, is one of them. Hot Pot Champ is the first restaurant in Chinatown to deliver the food by a robot which is a cutting edge tool to reduce the cost for restaurants and labor shortage. "The robot is very helpful to us, but it can't reduce the number of employees that we need to hire," Qu added.

Qu also invested in the advanced innovative pots which would make the cooking smokeless for the customers when they turn on their pots. Customers may also find a number of the artwork inside and out of the Hot Pot Champ. "All of these are parts of Chinese and Sichuan culture that I am trying to promote," Qu smiled.