Grest article!
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Kenneth giving me my erhu lesson last Friday afternoon, 07/18/25
Open Mon - Sat 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Closed Sunday - 709 Jackson Street at Grant. Lovely people, check it out.
Legacy Businesses, Community
by SF Heritage
This piece was originally published in our July-September 2025 edition of SF Heritage News. To view the full issue, click here.
BY ALAN LEONG and Kerri Young
Alan Leong is the second-generation owner of Ellie and Eva Company, a music store in San Francisco’s Chinatown dedicated to preserving Chinese musical heritage and culture. Opened originally as Elle Company in 1970, it has served San Franciscans for 55 years and joined the Legacy Business Registry on July 24, 2023. The store relies on word-of-mouth recommendations and does not have a website. Visit the store in person and say hi to Alan and Kenneth at 709 Jackson Street.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
SF Heritage: For may decades Ellie and Eva Company grew its reputation as a neighborhood music store, but when it was first founded by your parents in 1970 as Elle Company it sold a wider range of imported goods from China. Tell us about these early years, and when the business merged with Eva Company a few years after.
Alan Leong: In 1970 my parents, immigrants Louise and Kenneth Leong, founded Elle Company at 852 Clay Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Initially, the store was a retail business that imported a variety of goods from Hong Kong, including Chinese jackets, vinyl records, mahjong sets, lamps, snacks, and small household items. The business expanded in 1972 when Louise and Kenneth opened a second store in the neighborhood, a mini grocery called Eva Company, at 709 Jackson Street. Two years later, in 1974, Elle Company relocated to 707 Jackson Street, next door to Eva Company, with an internal doorway connecting both shops. The name of the original store was changed from Elle Company to Ellie Company in 1980. In 2013 I took over the business, combining the two stores into the single Ellie and Eva Company, which continues to operate at the 709 Jackson Street location.
Shop front of Ellie and Eva Company at 709 Jackson Street. SF Heritage photo.
Kenneth Leong playing the erhu for SF Heritage’s Kerri Young inside Ellie and Eva on June 11, 2025. Now 95 years old, Kenneth still helps out at the store, where he tunes violins, assembles the shop’s signature pinwheels, and plays his erhu. His
favorite song is the Butterfly Lovers. Ellie and Eva photo.
Chinatown in the 1970s and 1980s was very different. Stores stayed open until 8–10 pm, restaurants until 2 am. There was nightlife: locals would come out for midnight snacks, and tourists would continue to fill the streets until stores on Grand Avenue closed in the evening. Most merchants ate dinner in the back of the shop with their families, and children played in the streets. It was very prosperous and safe. Today, there are fewer visitors and businesses; most shops close early, and the streets are empty of people and cars soon after 6 pm. It’s just a testament to why we need to tell the stories of our business and other longtime neighborhood anchors. As our neighborhoods change, these stories preserve the histories of the places that have contributed to the vibrancy of our neighborhoods for decades.
Tell us about your family’s love for music and art and how that manifested in support for the Chinatown and wider community. How did this love help evolve the business into a music store?
Family photos on the wall inside Ellie and Eva Company. SF Heritage photo.
The Leong family’s love for music and art has been a cornerstone of the business and its community involvement. My parents were promoters of music and art, sponsoring Chinese opera and concerts at distinguished Chinatown venues such as the Great Star Theater, Pagoda Theater, and Sun Sing Theater. These cultural events provided the Chinese expatriate community with authentic experiences they might not have had otherwise.
They passed down this passion for music and arts to me, and I grew up listening to my mother play the harmonica, my father play the violin, and attending Chinese opera with my grandmother. These experiences inspired me to found Certified Music in 1997 to promote local musicians and increase awareness of traditional Chinese instruments. This deep-rooted appreciation for music guided the evolution of Ellie and Eva Company into Chinatown’s neighborhood music store.
What are some of the things that make your store unique in San Francisco?
Ellie and Eva Company holds a unique position as the only musical instrument store in San Francisco’s Chinatown. This makes it a vital and convenient resource for families purchasing instruments for their children’s schooling and for musicians seeking to continue their cultural heritage. Only during Chinese New Year does the store close its doors and transition into an assembly room for auspicious pinwheels. My father Kenneth and I assemble over 3,000 for the San Francisco Chinese New Year Street Fairs as well as the Bok Kai Temple Festival in Marysville.
Kenneth and Alan with their assembled pinwheels at the Chinese New Year Festival in 2023.
We carry an exclusive inventory of traditional Chinese instruments, including the erhu, guzheng, pipa, and guqin, some of which have histories stretching back thousands of years. We have also noticed a growing interest in these instruments from non-Chinese customers. Beyond this we also carry acoustic and electric guitars, music memorabilia, and affordable, high-quality instruments like violins and cellos for young, first-time players. Our shop is happy to provide free tuning, stringing, and repair services for violins for first year students.
How did you feel about being added to the Legacy Business Registry in 2023? What are some of the ways that your business continues to serve the community?
During [SF Heritage’s] visit to the store, my father Kenneth said how “very proud” he was to be a member of the Legacy Business Registry and to be “connected to the history of San Francisco.” We want to thank the legacy program, former [District 3] supervisor Aaron Peskin, and everyone who helps to get our name and our store out there. Without the program, we would not be noticed for the all the years our store has been in business. Since joining the Registry, people from New York and Seattle have contacted us. [You can even find mention of us online now!] We didn’t expect to be online and still do most things the old fashioned way through word-of-mouth. As children of immigrants, we are especially proud of our parents for their perseverance to remain open and to continue contributing to the community.
Kenneth and Alan with Richard Kurylo of the Legacy Business Program at City Hall in 2023
The company continues to serve the community in several ways: we donate musical instruments from our inventory to the annual SFFD toy drive; we try to keep our products affordable to ensure they remain accessible to residents from all walks of life; we continue participating in Chinatown community festivals; and my father has been actively involved in several community groups, including serving as the former President of the Hoy Fung Musical Club and the Leong Family Association.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Patrons often reminisce with me about their memories when they were young of the store’s preserved plum candy and the black vinyl records we sold in our early days—some were the little kids running around Chinatown
Community Voices: A Half-Century of Preserving Chinese Musical Heritage
Greg