Latest news with #FerryBuilding
Eater
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
Here Are the Bay Area's Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings for Summer 2025
We're halfway through 2025, and the San Francisco Bay Area has seen a parade of exciting restaurant and bar openings spice up the food and beverage scene. But now that summer is here, a new roster of restaurants is readying to join the fray, perfect for sun-filled outings with your besties. Explore Filipino cuisine from a French Laundry alum, or grab some pastries from a new bakery by the Michelin-starred team at Sorrel. Meanwhile, a modern Chinese pop-up is perfecting its new Hayes Valley restaurant space, and a Marina bar flips into a restaurant inspired by New York- and New Jersey-style Jewish delis. There's a lot to explore this summer, and here's your guide to the hottest places opening in the next few months. Chef Jade Cunningham is a pop-up veteran bringing Filipino food to a new permanent spot in Napa with the opening of Carabao. Cunningham grew up in the Philippines, helping with her aunt's eatery in Bulacan, but when she set out for her culinary internship in the United States, she settled in Napa, landing at the Meritage Resort before later joining three-Michelin-starred The French Laundry. At Carabao, Cunningham promises familiar Filipino flavors, but done up with local produce and techniques from her culinary background. The menu will feature items such as Filipino favorite sisig, as well as squid adobo, lumpia, and more. 145 C Gasser Drive, Napa. . Opening: Parachute opens in July, Arquet opens in August The minds behind Michelin-starred Sorrel have doubled down on the Ferry Building, opening not one, but two projects on San Francisco's waterfront. Set to open first is Parachute, a new bakery led by executive pastry chef Nasir Zainulabadinand, highlighting laminated treats. That bakery will be connected to the larger Arquet, a new restaurant from chef Alex Hong that's taken over the former Slanted Door space at the Ferry Building. There, Hong will serve a 'seasonal ingredient menu rooted in the bounty of the California coastline,' per a press release, utilizing wood-fire cooking techniques. 1 Ferry Building, Suite 5, San Francisco. and . Chef James Yeun Leong Parry has been touring the Happy Crane concept as a pop-up since 2023, showing off his personal style of contemporary Chinese cuisine at Rich Table, Nisei, Pacific Cocktail Haven, and more. But now the chef has finally put down roots in Hayes Valley, taking over the former Monsieur Benjamin space and renovating it for the Happy Crane's summer debut. Diners can expect a menu that is a culmination of Parry's extensive cooking background of working at restaurants in Hong Kong and Tokyo, as well as Benu and Palette Tea House. Think roasted meats such as char siu, noodles made in-house, plus a 'playful selection' of dim sum and small plates, per a press release. 451 Gough Street, San Francisco. . The Causwells team is close to opening their take on classic New York and New Jersey Jewish delis, plopped into the heart of the Marina. Chef Adam Rosenblum and beverage director Elmer Mejicanos have closed down their low-proof bar Lilah and are set to install Super Mensch in its place, highlighting comfort food deli classics such as house-cured and smoked pastrami, as well as latkes, Reubens on rye, and more. Not to be left out of the equation, Mejicanos is readying a deli-worthy cocktail menu thanks to a new, full liquor license, with flavors such as egg cream and celery soda at the heart of its drinks. 2336 Chestnut Street, San Francisco. . The new permanent spot for Chicano Nuevo has been in the works for the last two years, but its time to shine is nearly here; chef Abraham Nuñez is close to opening the doors to his Bernal Heights restaurant in late August to early September. It's a happy ending that's been a long time coming, from the restaurant's residency days at Broken Record to Nuñez's stints at Cockscomb and State Bird Provisions. Nuñez's partner, Courtney Fujita, is also an industry pro who is working toward the restaurant's opening at the end of the summer. No menu details yet, but diners can expect the same big flavors the pop-up has touted all these years, such as a tamale negro stunner that landed as a Best Dish in 2024. 3355 Mission Street, San Francisco. . Chisme is the brainchild of chef Manuel Bonilla, where he's taken dive bar food and amped it up with Filipino and Salvadoran flavors. Chisme took up residency at Oakland's Low Bar last year, but it recently decamped to start over as Bar Chisme, taking on the former Kon-Tiki space at 347 14th Street in Oakland. It's a full-circle moment for Bonilla, who pioneered the popular burger at that beloved tiki bar, but he's reimagining the space as his own with a (likely) playful menu to boot. Expect some of the favorite dishes that built the Chisme name at Low Bar, but with the added bonus of a smash burger, Crunchwrap Tuesdays, and a tight list of cocktails to wash it all down. 347 14th Street, Oakland. . See More: San Francisco Restaurant Openings
Eater
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
This Titanic Polk Street Gay Bar Just Got Pulled Back from the Brink
Polk Street, where the first San Francisco Pride parade marched in 1970, just got great news: The last remaining gay bar in Polk Gulch got a big stimulus injection from a new owner. The Cinch Saloon, an icon in the area alongside the Grubstake Diner, opened in 1974. Now it'll get a second life from Scott Taylor, a beverage director at nearby Harris' Restaurant for 23 years. The news is more than just timely, given Pride. According to the San Francisco Chronicle , rumors had been in the air that the Cinch would close any day. One of the two former owners died in 2023. This Tuesday, June 3 announcement gives a spark of hope to the area that, once upon a time, was just as important a gayborhood as the Castro. Drag main character Juanita More told the paper she'd help Taylor keep the Cinch around 'for a hundred years.' New Oakland restaurant event debuts this summer The Oakland Restaurant Collective — a new-ish collection of business owners in the Town including chef Nelson German of alaMar Dominican Kitchen and the teams behind Jaji and the Caffè by Mr. Espresso — is about to run its first Summer Affair. The event runs all of June and is meant to highlight the some 30 restaurants in the cadre who will host special, restaurant-week-esque menus. There are a ton of events at participating restaurants to peep, too. Ferry Building croissant favorite set to shutter Back across the water, Grande Creperie on the waterfront is in jeopardy. The business, which opened in 2022, was informed its lease will end on June 30, 2025. The San Francisco Standard reports owners Patrick and Joanna Ascaso were told in January they'd have an extended lease. They say they were told by building management their outfit no longer fits the 'cultural mix' of the Ferry Building. Michelin star-holding restaurant rolls out affordable menu One of the city's newest additions to the ol' tire guide has just unveiled a plan to bring in diners on those nights that are decidedly less special occasion-y. On Monday, June 2 the team at 7 Adams released its 7 at 7 menu. In an Instagram post, the business owners said the idea is to offer a nightly, $127 seven-course menu somewhere between the $87 five-course menu and the $157 chef's counter experience. Sign up for our newsletter.
San Francisco Chronicle
04-06-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. Ferry Building cafe will close in ‘sudden and unexpected' move
A popular French cafe is closing at San Francisco's Ferry Building, the latest tenant to say they were suddenly forced to close by management of the famed landmark. Grand Crêperie, from San Francisco's popular Le Marais Bakery, will close June 30, owners Patrick and Joanna Ascaso announced Tuesday. The closure was 'sudden and unexpected,' they said, and came after attempts to keep the business open. They said Hudson Pacific Properties, which leases the Ferry Building from the Port of San Francisco, discussed a lease extension for Grand Crêperie in a January phone call, but did not provide a written agreement. Then, in March, Ferry Building management informed them that their three-year lease would not be renewed. In a March 10 email shared with the Chronicle, Joanna Ascaso wrote to Hudson Pacific Properties that a leasing agent on the January call said she would be sending them a lease and a 'clear commitment was made to renew us.' The Ferry Building declined to answer specific questions about what happened but wrote in an emailed statement that Grand Crêperie's lease was 'always presented' as short term and 'we are simply letting it expire rather than renewing it.' 'One of the Ferry Building management's ongoing priorities to enhance the building is to make it more accessible in the evenings, and we are looking forward to announcing a new tenant for the space shortly which will have longer hours and support those efforts,' Ferry Building general manager Jane Connors said in the statement. The situation echoes the recent departure of popular Arab bakery Reem's, whose owner also claimed its closure was 'sudden.'The Ferry Building similarly attributed that decision to a push for more nighttime, full-service dining options. The nearby Red Bay Coffee also closed (though it later returned as a popup coffee van parked outside). The two vacant spaces will be combined and renovated to make way for a new tenant that has yet to be announced. Grand Crêperie opened at the Ferry Building in 2022, when the landmark was still struggling to recover from the pandemic. The crêperie is a primarily daytime business, focused on sourdough crepes, French pastries (including a viral, giant croissant) and coffee, but recently expanded its hours until 5 p.m. three days a week in response to management's desire for more evening options, Patrick Ascaso said. In January, the Ferry Building had agreed at the Ascasos' request to help the business secure a beer and wine license, they said. The owners also later offered to add cocktails, expand the food menu and redesign the space. The 500-square-feet crêperie is busy, often with a line out the door, Patrick Ascaso said. It brought in $1.3 million in revenue last year. Patrick Ascaso alleged that management said on a phone call that Grand Crêperie doesn't fit the 'cultural mix' of the Ferry Building. A Ferry Building spokesperson declined to respond to Ascaso's comment on the record. 'We built a beautiful space, and we entered the building at a period of significant vacancy and were told repeatedly that we were part of bringing it back to life, a flagpole local business,' Joanna Ascaso wrote in the March 10 email to Hudson Pacific Properties. 'We cannot understand why then you would call us out of the blue, three weeks before the end of our current term, when we had upheld everything that was ever asked of us, and the only reason you seem to offer is that we are no longer part of your mix?' They hope to find a new home for Grand Crêperie. Le Marais has five locations in San Francisco, Mill Valley and Marin. The Ferry Building has seen major turnover since the pandemic, with new arrivals including Cambodian star Lunette and knife shop Bernal Cutlery. On Wednesday, burger chain Gott's Roadside opened a new cookie counter, an idea which 'came to life from a conversation with the Ferry Building management team,' who wanted to 'activate' the north side of the building, Gott's president Clay Walker said in a press release. More openings are coming soon: Michelin-star restaurant Sorrel is opening a full-service restaurant and bakery in the former Slanted Door space this year, while San Francisco's famed Nopa and premier fishmonger Water2Table are gearing up to debut a seafood restaurant and market.
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Pokemon Go Made Niantic Billions. Now It's Ditching Gaming For AI.
Walking through Niantic's headquarters in San Francisco's historic Ferry Building, visitors are greeted by a scrum of giant Pokemon stuffed animals: On amphitheatre-style steps, an enormous Snorlax naps in the corner while a bulbasour sits ready to pounce. Elsewhere, a stunned Psyduck stares vacantly toward the distance, and perhaps the company's unexpected future. In March, Niantic made a bombshell announcement: the developer of Pokemon Go — once the biggest mobile game ever in the U.S. — is abandoning games to go all-in on AI. It has sold off its game development business to Saudi-owned game maker Scopely in a $3.5 billion deal and rebranded itself as Niantic Spatial. Instead of building augmented reality games for mobile phones, it will develop artificial intelligence models that analyze the real world for enterprise clients. 'It's kind of unusual for a successful company to do this cellular division — form two companies,' cofounder and CEO John Hanke told Forbes. 'It became clear to us that the way to maximize the opportunity for both was to let each of them go and pursue its future.' Now, Niantic is doubling down on its nascent Spatial platform, announced in November, which provides AI mapping tools that companies can use to chart out routes for robots or power augmented reality glasses. Just as large language models allow AI to generate text, Niantic's Large Geospatial Models (LGMs) help AI understand, navigate and interact with physical spaces as a human would. The models are able to recreate 3D, real-world places thanks to Niantic's massive set of location data, drawn from the 30 billion miles people have collectively walked playing its games like Pokemon Go and Ingress. And when the models don't have precise data on all the dimensions, topography or physical structures in a place, they use generative AI to fill in those blanks, estimating different angles of a statue or missing corners of rooms. 'I don't think maximizing the value for Pokemon Go for the next 10 years is necessarily where [Hanke's] heart is at.' Niantic's pivot underscores the seismic effect that the generative AI frenzy has had on Silicon Valley since ChatGPT rocked the industry nearly two-and-a-half years ago — radically transforming even a firmly established decade-old company like Niantic. According to Gartner, the market for spatial computing is expected to hit $1.7 trillion by 2033, up from $110 billion in 2023, with growth driven by location-based services from the likes of mapping giant TomTom and traditional big tech like Google. 'The opportunity is enormous,' said Tuong Nguyen, director analyst for Garner's emerging technology team. So is the competition. In spatial AI, Niantic faces some formidable rivals. Since 2021, Nvidia, the $3 trillion chipmaker, has offered Omniverse, an enterprise platform that creates 3D 'digital twins' for performing simulations in factories and other industrial settings. And last year, computer vision pioneer Fei-Fei Li, known as the Godmother of AI, founded World Labs, a startup building AI that generates 3D fantasy worlds, which could be helpful for video game development or astronaut simulations. The company is already valued at $1 billion — without even launching a product. To fund its new company, Niantic went to its well of existing investors, including Coatue, Battery Ventures and CRV, for a $250 million investment. As part of the deal, which was in the works for a year and is expected to close by the end of the month, about 400 gaming employees will join Scopely, maker of the popular Monopoly Go mobile game, and about 200 will remain with Niantic. The company laid off more than 65 people during the restructuring; Niantic isn't expecting any more 'significant' layoffs, though one or two people could hypothetically depart in the final phases of the deal, Hanke told Forbes. From the start, Pokemon Go was a runaway hit, generating around $8 billion in revenue since its debut in 2016, analysts estimate. Almost a decade later, the game, which tasks players to catch virtual Pokemon by trekking to real-world locations, racked up 100 million players in 2024, Niantic said. The company brought in $1 billion in revenue last year, with 30 million monthly players across its catalog, which also includes Pikmin Bloom, a step-counter game developed with Nintendo, and Monster Hunter Now, developed with Capcom. Niantic doesn't break out revenue for individual games, but the vast majority came from Pokemon Go, according to research firm Aldora Intelligence. It was responsible for $770 million of Niantic's billion-dollar haul in 2024, the firm estimated. Pokemon Go was a global phenomenon, attracting meetups around the world. The game was lightning in a bottle, but Niantic has had trouble replicating its success. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the company's first big bet after Pokemon Go became a global phenomenon, was released in 2019 and scrapped in 2022. That same year, the company laid off around 90 people, shutting down several games in development, including one based on the Transformers franchise. A year later, Niantic shut down its Los Angeles studio and laid off 230 people, a quarter of its workforce at the time, coinciding with mass job cuts across the industry post-pandemic. The closure meant cancellations of a handful of major projects, including games with high profile partners like the NBA and Marvel. And even Pokemon Go's lustre has faded from its glory days. On Apple's App store, it's still a top 10 role playing game, but it has fallen out of the top 100 free games. Hanke insists the sale was not due to games underperforming or revenue woes. 'It's not a case of abandoning the [games] business,' he said. 'You look around at the games we have on the market — revenue is doing well,' he added, pointing to the 'successful' launch of Monster Hunter Now in 2023, where players seek out and fight virtual monsters. The game brought in $142 million last year, a 23% jump year over year, according to Aldora. Joost van Dreunen, founder of Aldora Intelligence who's researched the industry for 15 years, agrees: 'This wasn't a fire sale to save the company.' The biggest reason for the split, Niantic executives say, is focus. Inside the company, there has always been competition for time and resources between the game development side and technology side, which developed all of the augmented reality and mapping tools that underpin the games. The latter, for example, built Niantic's 'visual positioning system' which could precisely pinpoint a person's exact location at a specific date and time (like if you caught a Squirtle at Grand Central Terminal at noon). Its technology portfolio also includes Scaniverse, an app Niantic acquired in 2021 that lets a user create a 3D model of a room by scanning it with their phone, similar to how you'd take a panoramic photo. Now, the company can devote all of its energy to the enterprise business — even if it means Niantic can no longer lean on its primary cash generator. 'We will have to focus on our own revenue,' said CTO Brian McClendon. 'And we won't have to split our attention between maintaining and improving Monster Hunter, and Pokemon Go revenue and business, versus addressing just this,' he said, referring to the enterprise platform. Brandon Gleklen, a principal at Battery Ventures, which first invested in Niantic's 2019 Series C, told Forbes the move was inevitable, noting that juggling games and developing AI 'was like two bodies running a three-legged race.' The pivot to enterprise is a decidedly buttoned-up swerve for a company with such a playful culture. It was named after the Niantic, a wrecked whaling ship that brought prospectors to San Francisco during the 1849 gold rush, its remains now residing beneath the TransAmerica tower. As an homage to the vessel, Niantic's lobby is styled like an old ship's deck with an antique cannon and scuba suit. But Hanke says the new strategy is a return to his roots. A pioneer in digital mapping, Hanke cofounded Keyhole in 2001, a satellite imagery startup that Google bought in 2004 for about $35 million in stock and used as the basis for Google Maps. After ascending to lead Google's global mapping operations, he began Niantic in 2010 as a small gaming division within the sprawling tech giant. It released Ingress, a sci-fi capture-the-flag game, two years later, and after the game became widely popular, Niantic was spun out into an independent company in 2015. (Google is still an investor in Niantic Spatial.) Then came Pokemon Go. Released in 2016, the game's placement of virtual Pokemon characters in real locations spurred millions of people to explore the outdoors, a novelty for an online game in an era of mounting screentime. It inspired meetups and events around the world. While several businesses limped through the pandemic, Pokemon Go surged as people looked for socially distanced activities outside. Three days after its release, it had more users than Twitter at the time. After just two months, it became the biggest mobile game ever in the U.S., clocking 21 million users a day. It was a cash cow, but that success came with lots of baggage. It takes a lot of work and money to nurture a megahit, and Niantic was throwing resources at keeping creating new features to keep people coming back. Meanwhile, coming up with a followup success became even more difficult. 'In the years since Pokémon GO's launch, the mobile market has become crowded and changes to the app store and the mobile advertising landscape have made it increasingly hard to launch new mobile games at scale,' Hanke wrote in a memo to employees during the 2023 layoff. 'We're not in the business of making weapons systems.' So the mobile game developer did the unimaginable: it ditched the games business. 'I don't think maximizing the value for Pokemon Go for the next 10 years is necessarily where [Hanke's] heart is at,' said Saar Gur, general partner at CRV, which invested in Niantic's Series C. The idea is to pitch Niantic's core technologies to businesses, like its visual positioning system, which could be useful to enterprises in confirming important deliveries were made, instead of just taking a photo of the package in the doorway, said McClendon. Scaniverse could allow a technician from an HVAC company to remotely survey an area and annotate the virtual space. Niantic Spatial has a handful of clients so far. The Singapore tourism board is using its tech to create an augmented reality tour of the country's popular Flower Dome, the largest glass greenhouse in the world. The closed-door pilot, set to launch next month, will let guests use headsets to see digital overlays with information about the various flower species, which pop up as they walk through the garden, said Gregory Yap, vice president of the Americas for the Singapore tourism board. A deal with government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton gives access to Niantic's logistics and mapping tools, like its scanning tech and visual positioning, which provides precise location tracking down to the centimeter, to all of the company's corporate clients. One unannounced client, Hanke said, is working on a development that's 'part theme park, and part office park, and part residential.' And Niantic hasn't ruled out doing business with the military. 'We will have customers in the government, public sector space that could include military customers,' Hanke said, though he does draw one line: 'We're not in the business of making weapons systems." The lifeblood for AI models is data, and Pokemon Go hoovered it up in droves. Spinning off the games division, however, doesn't mean Niantic is giving up the firehose, the company said. Niantic will continue to provide the game's underlying mapping technology to Scopely even after the sale, now as a vendor instead of proprietor. That means Niantic Spatial will still have access to the location data that allowed it to build its AI models in the first place, said Tory Smith, director of product management for the map platform. 'It's not like there's a spigot being shut off,' he said. 'We just can't control how it evolves over time.' Nor can the company control who has access to it. When Niantic announced the sale to Culver City, California-based Scopely in March, the company drew ire for selling its popular games portfolio — and the user data that comes with it — to a venture owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Hanke dismisses that concern. 'The rules of operation there are pretty clear, in the sense that Niantic and Scopely are the keepers of that,' said Hanke. 'So there wouldn't be any access to that, or any usage of that, outside of those companies.' In a statement, a Scopely spokesperson said the company 'maintains autonomous and independent operations.' 'Player data always has and will continue to be handled in accordance with strict data privacy laws and regulations, as well as stored exclusively on U.S.-based servers,' the company said. Some critics see Saudi Arabia's investments in video games and entertainment as a means to distract from its track record on human rights. Hanke said Niantic considered those points when it chose its buyer. 'We thought about that. We discussed and debated it,' he said. 'From our own personal observations, and the people that we've worked with in the Kingdom, I think there's a real desire there to become a more open liberal society.' When Niantic announced last November that it had created AI models based on location data collected by its games, there was more outcry. Some players felt blindsided their information was being used to train AI without their knowledge. Hanke strongly denied that, saying data wasn't collected when people just walked around playing games — only when players performed specific actions while during gameplay, like scanning a PokeStop to get in-game rewards like power-ups, and were asked for explicit consent to improve the company's systems. (McClendon acknowledged that AI wasn't mentioned specifically because the models weren't in development when the disclosure was written. It still does not reference AI, but after the deal closes, Niantic said the games business will roll out new terms of service that expand on its data policies.) To mark the sale of its games business and the beginning of its play in AI, Niantic held a party in early May across the street from headquarters at Sens, a tony Mediterranean restaurant overlooking the bay. At the party, Hanke and employees shared stories and memories as they said goodbye to the company in its current form. But after the deal closes, the gaming employees won't go very far. They'll move to a Scopely office a short walk away. The Pokemon stuffed animals will likely join them, Hanke said.
Epoch Times
05-05-2025
- General
- Epoch Times
Parade in San Francisco Celebrates World Falun Dafa Day
SAN FRANCISCO—Falun Dafa practitioners in the San Francisco Bay Area held a parade in the city on May 3, celebrating the upcoming World Falun Dafa Day. May 13 is the anniversary of the day the Chinese spiritual practice was first taught in public 33 years ago. It is also the birthday of its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, includes five meditative exercises and spiritual teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Before the parade, practitioners did the exercises together and took group photos. The parade set out from the Ferry Building at Harry Bridges Plaza and ended at Maritime National Historical Park. The Tianguo Marching Band, which is composed of Falun Dafa practitioners, played music while other practitioners carried banners and flags reading 'World Falun Dafa Day' and 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance' in English and Chinese. A parade float carried lotus flower decorations and pink and yellow lanterns, and some participants wore traditional Chinese costumes while others performed a dragon dance. Some held banners calling for an end to the persecution Falun Dafa has faced in communist China for 25 years. The Tianguo Marching Band leads a parade celebrating World Falun Dafa Day in San Francisco on May 3, 2025. Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times A parade celebrating World Falun Dafa Day marches through San Francisco on May 3, 2025. Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times Passersby watch a dragon dance in a parade celebrating World Falun Dafa Day in San Francisco on May 3, 2025. Gary Wang/The Epoch Times A float in a parade celebrating World Falun Dafa Day in San Francisco on May 3, 2025. Gary Wang/The Epoch Times Falun Dafa practitioner Anna Skibinsky in San Francisco on May 3, 2025. Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times Social media influencer Darren Stallcup, a passerby at an event celebrating World Falun Dafa Day in San Francisco on May 3, 2025. Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times Daniel Dabek, co-founder of a cryptocurrency company, is a passerby at an event celebrating World Falun Dafa Day in San Francisco on May 3, 2025. Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times 'When a person understands these spiritual principles, their entire life becomes better and becomes improved,' Anna Skibinsky, a U.S. government scientist and a Falun Dafa practitioner, told The Epoch Times. Related Stories 7/11/2024 5/28/2024 Skibinsky was a graduate student at Boston University when she started practicing Falun Dafa 27 years ago. 'Because of Falun Dafa, the challenges, disappointments, and setbacks I face in life, they're presented to me as opportunities to become better, lighter, even younger,' she said. 'I feel like I walk through life in a completely different way than others around me who have no spiritual path.' Passersby stopped to watch people doing the Falun Dafa exercises before the parade, and some of them spoke to The Epoch Times. One was social media influencer Darren Stallcup, who said, 'I love seeing our fellow Asian Americans come together, not only to celebrate life, but to also stand up for justice.' Another was Daniel Dabek, co-founder of the cryptocurrency company Safex. Dabek said he resonates with the principles of Falun Dafa. 'These are the pillars upon which a good person can interact with other good people,' he said. 'I'm moved by the movement. I win because I know what is good, and Falun Dafa is that good.' He said he hopes that people in China, where Falun Dafa is being persecuted, will understand what's important and good. He also hopes people around the world will follow truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Gary Wang contributed to this report.
