Soon Long Beach will be the only place you can taste the uniquely seasoned and sauced chicken wings made by Cambodian-owned Shlap Muan.
The husband-and-wife team behind Shlap Muan, Hawk and Sophia Tea, is closing their San Francisco location and moving back to Long Beach after years of pandemic-induced frustration.
“At the start of the pandemic, I think early 2020, the line was out the door and people were willing to wait 45 minutes to an hour for our food,” Hawk said of the location, which opened in 2017. “Then the second shelter in place happened—we basically lost 90% of our business overnight.”
Hawk said San Francisco’s frequently changing health guidelines for restaurants added to the stress.
“It was kind of tough,” Hawk said. “Sporadically we see policies for people coming back to work, and then like the next day they shut it down again. So that’s the frustrating part in ‘Cisco, is that there’s no consistency in the policy that’s being talked about.”
When the couple first moved to San Francisco seven years ago they were both working corporate jobs that they eventually became “fed up with,” he said.
“Then this opportunity came up to open a restaurant and her and I are like ‘You know let’s just do it, it’s now or never, we’re not gonna have another opportunity.’ So we decided just to quit our jobs and just open the restaurant, basically, chips all in,” Hawk told the Signal Tribune.
Shlap Muan’s menu features chicken wings available in eight different Cambodian-fusion flavors divided evenly into sauces and dry rubs, such as their creamy water buffalo sauce and Cambodian dirt dry rub.
“Basically I just wanted to pull some of the flavors I grew up eating,” Hawk told the Signal Tribune in 2020.
The soon-to-be-closed San Francisco location was the first one opened by the couple. It operated there for three years before they brought the brand to Long Beach in 2020—selling food out of Golden Chinese Express, the restaurant Hawk’s parents have owned since his childhood.
While the couple resided in San Francisco and ran that location, Hawk’s parents continued to operate the brand in Long Beach. But with their moving date nearing and their first location set to close on Feb. 25, they’re preparing to take a larger role in the Long Beach restaurant.
“I think once it becomes my own restaurant and my own operation it’s going to be a little different,” Hawk said. “Just trying to make my parents proud, you know, that’s what both Sophia and I wanted to do.”
After living in San Francisco for eight years, the couple is looking forward to moving back to Long Beach and living closer to their family.
“I think it’s a good time to bring our brand back to Southern California and be closer to our Cambodian heritage,” Hawk said. “You know, the whole reason for us opening the restaurant in the first place was for us to pay homage to what we grew up on. So it’d be nice to go back to our roots.”
Shlap Muan’s Northside Long Beach location is located at 2150 E. South St. Long Beach, CA 90805. To keep with the business follow them on their official Instagram @shlapmuan.