If you’d asked David Liu a few years ago where he thought he’d be slinging sushi in 2025, he probably would have told you Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. That’s where he opened his first restaurant, Ebiko, in 2022. “Going into it, my main focus was just that I wanted to own my own business,” he says. “I thought I’d be working at that location until the end of my life.”
But the universe had its own plans for the entrepreneur. Because after opening a second location of his popular takeout sushi restaurant last year in downtown San Francisco, Liu finds himself gearing up to add a third.
Liu expects to open Ebiko’s third outpost in mid-August at 526 Columbus Ave. in North Beach. He’s been working on the space for nearly a year, after walking by a vacant storefront — formerly home to Caffe Roma, which shuttered in 2107 — and thinking the neighborhood could use an infusion of energy. Though he launched Ebiko in the East Bay, Lui lives in the city and has family in the neighborhoods around North Beach. Plus, he’s a big fan of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana — “If it wasn’t for sushi, I’d be really into pizza” — and couldn’t resist an opportunity to open practically across the street.