General Manager, Crustacean San Francisco
Monique An lives in San Francisco with her husband and their three young daughters. She spearheads the operations of Crustacean San Francisco and Thanh Long with her husband, Kenneth Lew. This summer, they launched AntheGo, a food truck featuring the restaurant’s famous Garlic Noodles.
Monique An has grown up in her family’s business, starting with the first family’s restaurant, Thanh Long in 1971, the first Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco. She has worked through Thanh Long’s growth from a 25 seat “hole in the wall” to a 200 seat gem in the Sunset District of San Francisco. She moved to Crustacean with its opening in 1991 and has been General Manager since 1997, being an integral part of its success. While growing up at her family restaurants, she worked various positions from the front of the house–hosting, serving, bartending, to wine buying and cooking in the “secret kitchen.” She has been inspired by her mother, Helene An, to study in culinary works and spent time in Paris at Ritz Escoffier and Cordon Bleu Culinary School; she also attended Paul Bocuse Culinary School in Lyon, France. During her travels to Asia, she studied Thai cooking in Bangkok and Vietnamese cooking in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. She has attended wine classes at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa and handled wine buying and selection for Crustacean’s extensive wine list which has won a “Best of” Award from Wine Spectator since 1997.
With her Bachelor of Science Degree from SFSU in Accounting and Finance, she has handled accounts payable, budgets, and finances for the restaurant in addition to implementing strategies and planning and development of new ventures. She completed her CPA exams in 1995, but decided to dedicate her career in restaurant and hospitality and is passionate about creating a wonderful dining experience for people to enjoy.
Monique An is the third of five daughters. Born in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, she fled Vietnam at the Fall of Saigon with her mother and 2 older sisters in 1975. With only an hour’s notice, the family literally left with just the clothes on their back. Her mother, Helene An, thought to bring her three daughters safely out of the country and then return with her Air Force pilot husband to retrieve family treasures. This never happened as entry to Vietnam was closed and the Communist regime claimed victory. The family reunited with their father in the Phillipines as they awaited entry to the U.S. and later resided in San Francisco with her paternal grandparents, who were operating a small restaurant serving Vietnamese and American food called Thanh Long.
Together as a family, three generations worked hard together to build a successful restaurant business comprising of Thanh Long, Crustacean San Francisco, Crustacean Beverly Hills, AnQi SouthCoast Plaza, TiaTo Santa Monica, and AntheGo food truck SF.