It was the end of an era in Chinatown when restaurant Sam Wo shut its doors in January. The restaurant served its first meal just after the 1906 earthquake and became a fixture in Chinatown, serving traditional Chinese dishes.

Now, the doors are open again thanks to a group of local investors determined to keep the legacy of Sam Wo going.

Sam Wo restaurant has been in David Ho's family for generations. After roughly 40 years in the kitchen, his knees and shoulders just couldn't take the strain of cooking all day long. So, he decided to retire in January.

"Mr. Ho has been around for so long and he's so passionate and very detailed about everything," said Steven Lee, a Sam Wo Investor. "So, after 45 years of running up and down the stairs, he's finally exhausted."

Steven Lee is one of the investors in the Sam Wo restaurant. He couldn't imagine Sam Wo being closed for good, so he spearheaded the effort to find a way to open again. He tried to find a buyer with no success. Had a promising chef come in to take over, but that fell through. Eventually, he connected with two established Chinese restaurant owners in the Bay Area to open Sam Wo again.

"I went to them and said let's do this as a joint venture," said Lee. "You have a cooking team, you have the resources for running the service, and we can try to work out some deal."

While there may be new chefs in the kitchen, they are all being trained by David Ho.

"Mr. Ho is here," said Lee. "He's training the main chef the recipes. So, the legacy recipes are still here but they're also putting in some of their modern dumplings as part of the menu."

Ho plans to retire in China but only after his job is done to make sure the new chefs carry in the Sam Wo legacy.

Steven Lee and his group of investors have given themselves two years to see if this venture works. Lee says between tariffs and inflation the cost to run the business has gone up roughly 30%, just since January. But he feels it will be even more costly for Chinatown to lose a business like Sam Wo.

"We don't want Chinatown to lose another historic restaurant," Lee said. "Not only that but a tourist attraction. Sam Wo has been a tourist attraction for a hundred years. We're in recovery mode. We can't do that and kill that."