Garden Creamery Debacle Is Just the Tip of the Ice Cream Cone in SF’s Unfair Rules

Recently I was sad to learn that <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/heatherknight/article/S-F-ice-cream-shop-hopeful-sees-dreams-melted-by-16116082.php" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Jason Yu gave up on opening</a> a dessert shop in San Francisco’s Mission district, after 22 months of struggle to get city approvals. Three months of the delays can be directly attributed to actions by the owners of <a href="https://gardencreamery.com/home/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Garden Creamery</a>, whose ice cream business sits half a block from Yu’s proposed storefront. But what took the cake for me was that a Garden Creamery owner <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/S-F-ice-cream-shop-contested-an-Asian-owned-16133128.php" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">told the SF Chronicle</a> that their complaint was about “clarifying inconsistencies,” and that they “feel badly for Jason.” That’s because I had tuned into the hearing online in June 2020 (<a href="https://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=20&clip_id=35936" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">video recording</a> starts at 7:07:17) to support Yu’s store Matcha ‘n More. (Disclosure: I am a board member of the Edwin M. Lee Asian Pacific Democratic Club, which <a href="https://www.edleedems.org/events/garden-creamery-ice-cream" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">supported Yu</a> and the new business.) <a href="https://thefrisc.com/garden-creamery-debacle-is-just-the-tip-of-the-ice-cream-cone-in-sfs-unfair-rules-7c1e80240b9f">Read More</a>