Nine months into his new venture, Edward Dang, the restaurateur behind Carbon Grill SF at 10th & Clement, says business is great.

Crowds often fill the restaurant, which offers a "pan-Asian" riff on Korean barbecue, with $27 all-you-can-eat menus and $5 pints of draft beer, and a focus on TV coverage for sporting events.

Launched last November, it's a venture between Dang and two high school friends, Wilson Ho and Tedman Cheng. Previously, also along with a high school friend, he opened and was a managing partner in Hot Pot Garden, which has locations in Millbrae and on Taraval Street in the Sunset.

Dang said that Carbon Grill was born from a desire to see something he couldn't find elsewhere in San Francisco. "I opened Carbon Grill ... with the goal of bringing L.A.'s BBQ craze to San Francisco," he told us via email. "Every time my friends and I traveled to L.A., the first thing we'd do when we landed was head over to K-Town to dine at one of the many grill spots. We don't have any of that here, and I wanted to build something for San Francisco."

The vibe at the restaurant, divided between a bar and a roster of communal grill tables, is decidedly social. "It gets a little noisy, but it's nice," Dang said. "It's not your quiet little restaurant; people are watching sports and drinking beer, there are sake bombs."

"We have been expanding our menu to showcase new flavors and options that no other BBQ joint has," he added. Though there are plenty of vegetarian options, Dang said Carbon Grill is known for its bone-in short ribs—which he said are the only all-you-can-eat short ribs in San Francisco.

As for Clement Street, it's "a restaurant owner's dream," said Dang, who grew up in the Sunset and Richmond and said he's been excited by the growing food scene on inner Clement. "I'm really glad we secured this location."

On a street where most ventures are closed and locked up after 8pm, Dang thinks "[Carbon] is a good addition to the neighborhood," thanks to its late hours and lively clientele. "It's a better feel for a neighborhood joint."

While it's early days yet, and they're still working out some operational kinks, he added that a future expansion might be in the cards if he finds the right spot.