A Palo Alto-founded Vietnamese street food chain is finally crossing the Golden Gate into Marin County. Asian Box will open its first North Bay restaurant at Town Center Corte Madera on September 19, marking the fast-casual chain's ninth Bay Area location and its debut in a market that has never had one before.
The new restaurant, at 147 Corte Madera Town Center Drive, takes over a 2,401-square-foot space that previously housed a Veggie Grill, according to The Press Democrat. That plant-based chain had opened at the site in January 2015 and closed in August 2023, part of a broader wave of closures before Veggie Grill merged with Next Level Burger in 2024 after shuttering 12 sites, per the same report. Veggie Grill itself was founded in Irvine in 2006 and grew into the nation's largest plant-based restaurant chain before financial headwinds caught up with it, as Hoodline previously reported.
Asian Box was founded in 2011 by chef Grace Nguyen, restaurateur Frank Klein and chef Chad Newton, and the chain has built its identity around a 100% gluten-free, made-to-order menu. Diners build their own boxes with a base, protein, wok-tossed vegetables and house sauces, or order signature boxes, banh mi sandwiches, pho, spring rolls, boba teas, and beer and wine, per the Press Democrat's account of the menu.
A Founder's Roots at San Francisco's Slanted Door
Nguyen, a California Culinary Academy graduate, worked as a sous chef at the Slanted Door under chef Charles Phan and later served as executive chef of Out the Door, according to the same report. In a statement carried by the Press Democrat, Nguyen said consumers are seeking personalized, fresh food that does not compromise on flavor, and that the Corte Madera opening will bring healthy fast-casual food and authentic Vietnamese flavors to a new community.
The Corte Madera opening follows a deliberate slowdown in Asian Box's growth strategy. After opening seven locations between late 2016 and mid-2020, the chain concluded that rapid expansion was unsustainable and shifted toward a pace of one to two new locations a year, alongside nontraditional sites like airport terminals and museum food halls, CEO Chuck Imerson told Nation's Restaurant News in 2023. Imerson put it plainly at the time: Asian Box was not in a race. That recalibration has also included a marketing pivot away from broad digital search advertising toward localized community outreach and app-based loyalty rewards, the trade publication reported separately. Asian Box also recently launched a location at San José Mineta International Airport, according to the Press Democrat.
Why Corte Madera, Why Now
Town Center Corte Madera offers roughly 440,000 square feet of open-air shopping space along Highway 101, according to the Press Democrat, a commercial hub that has drawn national retail names to central Marin. The center dates back to 1958 as the original Corte Madera Shopping Center before a 1985 overhaul remade it into an open-air center styled after an Italian hill town, per BIGMallrat Retail History. Its retail corridor along Tamalpais Drive has become enough of a draw that multiple regional and national fast-casual chains have targeted Corte Madera for new outposts this year, per local reporting.
Asian Box's arrival isn't its first foray into the Bay Area's shifting restaurant real estate. The chain previously operated a location on Chestnut Street in San Francisco's Marina District, a spot Hoodline covered when it made its Chestnut Street debut in 2017. That space has since been claimed by fried chicken concept The Bird, which Hoodline reported was moving in earlier this summer.
The National Celiac Association lists Asian Box among its directory of 100% gluten-free restaurant chains across California, a distinction that has helped the brand build a following among diners managing celiac disease or gluten sensitivities. The Corte Madera location will keep regular hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday, according to the Press Democrat. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for September 18 at 3:30 p.m., with the restaurant opening to the public the following morning at 11 a.m., and the first 100 guests will receive tote bags.
