David Ho, who has owned and operated the beleaguered Sam Wo on Washington Street for the past 30 years, pleads his case before a Health Department hearing this morning. Ho and his daughter Julie, who serves as his translator, are currently presenting their plan to clean up the iconic Chinatown restaurant in light of necessary renovations and health code violations.

ABC7's Jonathan Bloom snagged this photo of the scene.

More on this, as it develops...

Update: Word from the Health Department hearing is that Sam Wo will indeed be spared permanent closure despite multiple health and fire code violations. As Grubstreet reports, David and Julie Ho left this morning's meeting with a laundry list of improvements they will need to make before reopening, including fixing the fire escape and putting in a proper hand-washing sink. According to Inside Scoop, the supporters in the public comment section included "priests, hippies, architects and politicians all testifying one after the other, the line looked like the Canterbury Tales."

We assume we'll be hearing more about how they propose to clean up the vermin and roach infestations in the coming days, but for now no hard re-opening date is set.

[GrubSF]