Azalina Eusope To Bring Malaysian Street Food To Twitter Building

Azalina Eusope and Chef Suvir Saran at La Cocina Night Market

Azalina Eusope, proprietor and chef at Azalina's Malaysian, will be opening her first brick-and-mortar space in the restaurant/market complex being developed on the first floor of the historic Market Square building on Market Street between Ninth and 10th Streets. The building is popularly known as the Twitter Building after its primary tenant.  For a descendant of five generations of Penang, Malaysia street food vendors, she'll be in pretty good company; her restaurant is being developed alongside projects by Dominique Crenn and the AQ team in the midst of what can be envisioned as a mashup of the Ferry Building Marketplace and Eataly.

In addition to providing tasty snacks at street food and food festival events, Azalina has had plenty of chances to show off her cooking chops in more formal settings, including a series of popups at Wise Sons Deli, a Monday night guest chef stint at Jardiniere, extensive catering, and cheffing at Twitter. The latter was undoubtedly a primary factor in her being offered the space.

Azalina's Bebola Curry

By happy coincidence, Azalina will be working across the street from Suvir Saran. The two met through Suvir's participation over the years in food entrepreneur conferences at La Cocina (of whose incubator kitchen Azalina is an alumnus) and have become close friends. Saran, an India-born New York Michelin-starred chef (for Devi) will be relocating to SF and opening a restaurant in  the NEMA building across 10th Street from the Twitter building.

No specific opening date has been set, but September is a target for the Market Square restaurant openings.

I've known Azalina since her first appearance at Off the Grid in 2010.  She is at once one of the most personable and hardest working people I have ever known and I have no doubt she will succeed.