Popular food hall in San Francisco Tenderloin to close
SAN FRANCISCO -- La Cocina Marketplace, a large food hall in San Francisco's Tenderloin District which supports seven small businesses, announced that financial losses have become too great to continue.
The beloved dining destination on Hyde Street and Golden Gate Avenue opened in one of the roughest stretches of the Tenderloin in 2021.
The food incubator supports female owners, many of them running their first-ever small business.
Nafy Flatley, who immigrated to the U.S. from Senegal is one of them. Her operation, Teranga, serves West African street food.
The food hall will close to the public and then become a shared commercial kitchen starting Sept. 1.
"Really sad because, I mean, this is my livelihood. I have three boys that I'm raising," Flatley said. "City's becoming super expensive and, if I don't have a way of supporting or having anyway of another income, this is my only income."
La Cocina said the financial losses were too great. Businesses are still at around 30 percent to 50 percent of their pre-pandemic sales due to remote office work and inflation. Open-air drug dealing and crime nearby have made things worse.
"After five in the afternoon, things change," Flatley said. "You see a lot of people selling the drugs, you see a lot of homeless [people] ... They sometimes go to the bathroom right there. The parklet we have we can't even use it because the parklet stinks."
La Cocina said it spends $275,000 a year on security personnel and equipment.
Flatley said that, last fall, a woman died in a bathroom from a drug overdose and it's not uncommon to witness shootings.
"I mean there was one Saturday, I was sitting right at that window, all the things were rolled down and I could hear the shooting from outside," she said.
City Attorney David Chiu, who said he visits about once a month, stopped by Thursday afternoon.
"I'm so sad," he said. "This space had been such a welcome to the neighborhood and I'd always hoped that it was going to be anchor for helping to turn around the neighborhood. We obviously have so much more work that we have to do."
Flatley said that, in the last two years, homelessness and drug-dealing in the neighborhood have only got worse. In the early morning hours, workers are often unable to access the entrance because it's blocked by homeless people.
She also said caterers have refused to work with Teranga because they don't feel safe.
"You see them all out on the street," she said of drug dealers. "I don't even bring my kids here anymore just because of that."
La Cocina said the front of the marketplace will feature a rotating pop-up featuring one entrepreneur, who can sell to the public.