SUDDEN SHUTTERS
Cheeky San Antonio pan-Asian restaurant to close after 16 years
Suck It is closing up shop after 16 years — including a decade in Medical Center.
One of San Antonio’s most provocative concepts is calling it a day. Suck It: The Restaurant will close its Medical Center flagship at 7220 Louis Pasteur Dr in Medical Center on December 31.
“There has been a lot of ups and downs over the last 16 years with Suck It, mostly lots of ups,” wrote an unnamed author on social media, presumably owner and chef Vinh Hoang. “With the current economy, rising prices, my family, and my health, I have decided with heavy heart to close @suckittherestaurant at the end of the year.”
Suck It has had a few different San Antonio versions, but always focused on Hoang’s pan-Asian fusion that combined phở and ramen with Asian tapas like his signature 420 types with bulgogi-style beef. The irreverent name came from its first iteration, a hookah lounge and bubble tea shop opened near UTSA in 2010.
Hoang kept the cheeky moniker when he opened the Medical Center restaurant in 2016. Since then, he has brought his signature irreverence to a bar and restaurant in St. Paul Square and an Alamo Ranch collab with Sari Sari Filipino Restaurant. The Louis Pasteur version is the only offshoot currently open.
Despite the decision to close the Medical Center outpost, Hoang has vowed to remain a part of the San Antonio food scene. In the post, he teased that he was considering ramen pop-ups with one of the many “talented chefs” he met over his career in San Antonio.
For now, he is taking stock of all the customers he met along the way, remembering the graduations, baby showers, and weddings he was able to be a part of.
"Many of my customers that came in to study while smoking hookah or drinking bubble teas have since become doctors, nurses, teachers, dentists, chefs, cyber security, I.T., and I remember one kid that eventually became @eldereats [aka local food personality David Elder ]," wrote the chef.
Pan & Coffee's menu ranges from chilaquiles to croissant sandwiches.Pan & Coffee/ Facebook