Crustacean, the upscale restaurant credited with bringing modern Vietnamese cuisine to the U.S., will close permanently on Oct. 31, after three decades on Bedford Avenue. After a new landlord introduced new plans for the building, the family behind the Beverly Hills institution is left searching for a new space to serve its signature garlic noodles and roasted crab.
Founding chef Helene An was forced to flee Vietnam with her three young daughters during the fall of Saigon in 1975. Landing in San Francisco, An helped convert her mother-in-law’s Italian deli into what is now Thanh Long, hailed as the first Vietnamese restaurant in the city. An’s Asian fusion dishes were ahead of her time, combining traditional Vietnamese cooking with Chinese and French elements that she picked up in childhood. As she slowly won over local diners, her success led to the opening of Crustacean San Francisco in 1991, and then Crustacean Beverly Hills six years later.
Since then, An has been inducted into the California Hall of Fame for her influence on food and culture, and recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as the “the mother of fusion cuisine” who “[changed] American palates forever.”
But on Friday, 83-year-old An held back tears as she sat with her daughter, Elizabeth An, and granddaughter, Bosilika An, on the second floor of Crustacean. Overlooking a sea of diners getting their last visits in, the three generations of An women reminisced about Crustacean’s 30-year run in Beverly Hills.
“This location, there was nothing,” Helene said, on the corner of Bedford Drive that was home to medical offices and a Rite Aid when she opened Crustacean Beverly Hills in 1997. Back then, Elizabeth suggested they host charitable events to introduce their food to their new neighborhood.
In the years that followed, Crustacean brought a pulse to the once-quiet corner, regularly attracting celebrities. The An women reminisced over Lady Gaga spending her first paycheck at Crustacean after rising to fame, Billy Joel holding a spontaneous piano concert one night and Chrissy Teigen vocalizing her support for Noods, Crustacean’s pandemic-era dining model.
Helene An and Elizabeth An expressed regret over not buying the building, but said it was not financially feasible when the opportunity arose. They made an offer in the early 2000s but were outbid by their previous landlord.
The turnover from that landlord to the new owner has felt like an “emotional roller-coaster,” Elizabeth An said. She had believed there was a mutual agreement allowing Crustacean to operate past its lease expiration of July 31, having signed a letter of intent outlining that plan. But after she returned from a family wedding in June, she learned the building had been sold.
Numerous proposals for a short term lease extension fell through, so the An family announced July 29 as its last date of service. On Tuesday morning, an agreement was reached to extend the lease through the end of October.
Crustacean will close as planned on July 29 to regroup for its final months of service. The restaurant is expected to reopen for dine-in next week, but due to staffing will operate at limited capacity. Dine-in service will extend through Sept. 30; the restaurant will shift to special events and takeout beginning Oct. 1 through the remainder of its lease.
“In the eleventh hour, we got our miracle,” said Elizabeth An, CEO of the family’s restaurant group House of An, in a statement to The Times. “We could not be more grateful for this extra time to properly thank our loyal guests and community for 30 wonderful years, and to give our team members the respectful transition they deserve.”
For its final weeks of service, Crustacean will serve its signature dishes, including a selection of dim sum arranged on an artful, tree-shaped display and tuna cigars that arrive overflowing with tobiko caviar in real cigar boxes, in lieu of any closing specials.
“We would never serve something different,” Elizabeth An said. “We’re gonna serve what everyone loves.”
Plans are underway for Crustacean pop-ups at its sister restaurants Tiato and AnQi later this year, said Elizabeth An. She also hopes to find a new location for Crustacean in L.A., citing Pasadena and Calabasas as likely candidates.
For Bosilika An, she said her family’s priority is supporting loyal staff through the turbulent closure.
“We know what it means to have had to leave in the eleventh hour,” she said, “and to feel even for a second that other families are going to go through that same struggle because of the closure… is the hardest part.”
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