Miguel Escobedo raises a blade to his trompo and slices off thin strips of roasted pork, stained red by achiote marinade. He nestles them on tortillas with chunks of pineapple and a sprinkle of cilantro and onions. This part of his business — the pork, the trompo, the magenta food truck painted with the name Al Pastor Papi next to an anthropomorphized spit of smiling, conical meat — is still the same, but two years into the coronavirus pandemic, so much has changed. No one orders at the window anymore, not since apps made in-person service obsolete. Escobedo’s menu now includes bottled Immunity Hot Sauce and handkerchiefs that double as face masks, and he has partnered with a rotating cast of unemployed DJs, who spin for tips in front of a few dozen socially distanced diners and hundreds more on Twitch.
But the biggest change is his parking spot on Mistral Street in the Mission. The half-block alley next to John O’Connell Technical High School transformed into a pop-up dining plaza nine months after COVID-19 hit, one of dozens of recurring street markets that have sprouted across San Francisco. Food trucks now line both curbs alongside booths from nearby businesses: Trick Dog’s cocktail cart, a roving flower shop, temporary kitchens from Farmhouse Kitchen Thai and Flour + Water that are now permanently deployed to one street-food park or another. Steps away, the high school’s soccer field is painted with the familiar honeycomb of socially distanced dining circles; reservable picnic tables form a ring around the perimeter.
Interactive graphic: A vision for SF's street food revolution
Conjure a Friday night in 2022 in your imagination, and it’s easy to picture street food being the hottest game in town.
Many countries around the world have rich traditions of roadside vendors and open-air markets. Now, thanks to its nimble setups, relatively low overhead and the decreased exposure risk of outdoor dining, street food seems poised to explode in San Francisco.
A glimpse of that potential future is visible today at Spark Social SF, a food park in Mission Bay. Like much of the city, the space shut down in the early days of the pandemic, but it’s open again — with mandatory masks, sanitizer stations and seating spaced 6 feet apart — focused less on lunch business from now-empty offices and more on feeding the neighbors.
“We’re super lucky,” says Carlos Muela, co-founder of Parklab, the company that runs Spark. “We were basically built for this pandemic.”
“That’s what things could look like in the future,” says Escobedo, who frequently slings his tacos and burritos inside the park. “Everyone’s enjoying themselves and social distancing.”
A former co-owner of Papalote restaurant, Escobedo has been offering free food and discounts to in-need community members during the pandemic, but even with those deals, his sales have reached and surpassed pre-coronavirus levels. Food trucks, he says, are a good fit for these odd, alarming times. “I think that’s a super winning model for COVID.”
As the pandemic drags into its sixth month, and Bay Area residents digest the idea that we’re not going back inside anytime soon, more businesses are looking to the street. In San Francisco, about 400 new parking spots and sidewalk areas are open for restaurant use through the Shared Spaces initiative, says program head Robin Abad Ocubillo. The city has also approved 10 applications to close portions of roadways for open-air dining and retail.
“It’s definitely exciting,” says Abad Ocubillo. “San Francisco and other cities are reimagining the potential of their public realm. … I think we’ll see more of this in the near and far future.”
Muela envisions a growing culture of street food for San Francisco, with miniature Spark-like plazas springing up in parks, parking lots and alleys. “I think we have to blur the lines between public and private space,” he says, taking inspiration from the markets of Spain (where his parents are from) and his experience at Spark (which operates on public land).
Matt Cohen agrees. The CEO of Off the Grid sees an opportunity to experiment with public space, to bring stripped-down versions of his food truck parties into residential areas with a mix of vendors on wheels and local brick-and-mortar businesses venturing outdoors to meet customers where they are. Already, many restaurants are seeking food trucks so they can be untethered from their physical space, and Cohen sees mobile operations branching beyond beer trucks and rice bowls to include shopping and services. “There’s a whole universe of mobility that works for neighborhoods that is really unexplored,” he says. “Everything from dog stores to drugstores to groceries.”
He pictures alleys morphing into commercial corridors, complete with public art, retail and, when health orders allow it, places for people to come together. “Where do new community centers form?” he asks. “As it becomes safe to do so, we’re super excited to think about what that looks like.”
But not everyone views the street as savior. Azalina Eusope is the chef and owner of Azalina’s and Mahila, a Malaysian restaurant that opened last year in Noe Valley. She has three other brick-and-mortar projects in various stages of development.
Eusope has deep love and respect for street food. She comes from a family of vendors, and Mahila specializes in Mamak cuisine, dishes from Malaysia’s Muslim Indian community sold on the streets of Penang.
At home, she says, “We don’t go to restaurants. We go to street vendors, and they make one dish for the whole of their lifetime.” Her father sold two types of noodles and illegal moonshine to non-Muslim friends. “He died as a poor man with no assets whatsoever,” Eusope says. But when he passed away, “the whole island came to say goodbye.”
In San Francisco, Eusope started her business on a plastic table at the Alemany Farmers’ Market and Off the Grid Fort Mason. With two young kids at home, it was exhausting work. When she thought about opening a restaurant, “we were upgrading ourselves,” she says.
On Friday, Azalina’s closed at the Twitter building in preparation for a new location at 499 Ellis St. Meanwhile, Eusope is serving takeout from Mahila and selling turmeric noodles by the pound. She wants the government to increase financial assistance for small businesses and for insurance companies to cover rent for restaurants largely shuttered by the coronavirus who’ve been paying into policies for years. She says she has to make it work with her current projects. She’s trying to keep her staff employed and is spread too thin to invest in something like a food truck, which could cost from $50,000 to upwards of $200,000.
For Cohen, that tension feels familiar. Off the Grid was born out of the 2008 financial crisis, and whatever emerges tomorrow will be the result of a similar stew of economic instability and ingenuity.
“The lower the cost of entry, the more interesting the ideas that can happen,” Cohen says of the street food future. “Sometimes in San Francisco, we can overthink things to death. It would be great if there was more of a willingness to say, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool …’ and persevere through the challenges, give it a shot and see what can happen.
“This might be louder than we expect. This might not look perfect. But it might add something unexpected to our collective community.”
More Information
Change of scene Here's the street food scene we could see in the not-too-distant future, with input from street food entrepreneurs (such as Spark’s Carlos Muela and Off the Grid’s Matt Cohen), the city of San Francisco and Miguel Escobedo, the owner of food truck Al Pastor Papi.
Truck boom Thanks to their minimal staff and open-air service, Escobedo says food trucks are a safer path for culinary entrepreneurs reconsidering brick and mortar. Muela has seen huge demand for vehicles from restaurateurs who want to branch out, and Cohen has had inquiries about his mobile kitchen model, Cubert.
Digital first To minimize contact, customers order and pay online, then get a notification to pick up their food when it’s hot off the grill or out of the fryer.
Together apart People crave the feeling of communal events even during a pandemic, so socially distanced seating allows folks to gather together while staying safely apart.
Retail Dining won’t be the only industry taking to the street. Retail shops could also set up booths.
Tenting As more dining moves outdoors, Cohen sees restaurants facing an issue he’s been dealing with for a decade: San Francisco weather. He envisions creative tent structures and enclosures to mitigate the chill during, say, January or June.
Vending One way to minimize exposure risk is eliminating human service entirely. Cohen is intrigued by the potential of vending machines that go way beyond candy bars and Coke.
Cottage kitchens Informal food businesses are emerging on Instagram during the pandemic. If home cooks are allowed to hawk their dishes publicly, Escobedo imagines an explosion of entrepreneurs selling mole, Filipino spaghetti or quesabirria.
Beyond brunch Many restaurants have expanded into produce and pantry items during the pandemic. Cohen predicts more food businesses embracing multiple revenue streams, like CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) boxes from suppliers, meal kits to complete at home or a line of spicy pickles.
Public meets private The Shared Spaces program is already conscripting sidewalks, parking spots and entire roadways for outdoor dining, but there’s room for expansion. Muela envisions interim use of public spaces like parks and parking lots to create an outdoor commercial plaza in every neighborhood.
Yellow light: The city has welcomed restaurants to San Francisco sidewalks and parking lanes. With a little buy-in, a new era of street food could be brewing.
Sarah Feldberg is an editor of the Throughline. Email: sarah.feldberg@sfchronicle.com
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