The first delicatessen was opened in 1979 in the
Los Angeles Chinatown. It later spread to other locations in California, including
Monterey Park and
Alhambra. Two other locations in the San Gabriel Valley opened only to later change hands or close. One restaurant opened in
Montebello, adjacent to where the former 99 Price Market was at, renamed to "A-1" (now closed) when an employee purchased it from the Sam Woo owners. In 2004, a Sam Woo also opened in the suburb of
Covina, California, but it failed the following year. There are two types of Sam Woo restaurants. The first is named Sam Woo BBQ Restaurant (). In 1992, presidential candidate
Bill Clinton held a fundraiser at a now-defunct Sam Woo Seafood Restaurant in
San Gabriel, California. In 2003, Sam Woo and other Chinese businesses in San Gabriel were affected by the
SARS panic, despite lack of evidence SARS cases in the area. Customer patronage declined and the restaurant closed. In Southern California, hoping to capitalize on the success of Sam Woo Restaurants, restaurateurs have opened imitations with similar names in English and Chinese. Examples include the long-gone Sam Doo Restaurant in San Gabriel and the current S.W. Seafood Restaurant in Irvine. In the early 1990s, a similar concept to Sam Woo Restaurant, the now-defunct Luk Yue Restaurant, also started in Los Angeles Chinatown and like Sam Woo, it expanded into the Chinese community of
Monterey Park,
Rowland Heights, and
Cerritos. ==See also==