As a Berkeley student, I take advantage of BART to travel to San Francisco from the East Bay almost every weekend. My trips are always food-oriented, so I’m no stranger to the SF food scene of festivals, markets, and pop-ups. The weekend of November 9, I was particularly excited to get a behind-the-scenes look at the newly revived Street Food Festival put on by La Cocina with a couple of my fellow Spoon members. The sprawling festival took place in China Basin Park in San Francisco, a quick MUNI ride from the Embarcadero BART station.
La Cocina is a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that has been supporting new food businesses for 20 years. They focus on female immigrants and POC entrepreneurs, providing resources like kitchen space, training, mentorship, and opportunities such as their Street Food Festival, catering, and pop-ups. The mission of La Cocina is to help solve equity issues in the food industry— one local business at a time.
At La Cocina, businesses move through four different tiers of support, averaging around six years in the program before graduating. A graduated business could be a brick-and-mortar, successful catering company, or one that sells packaged goods. This extended timeline allows continued support, and it shows— 70% of La Cocina businesses remain open for over 10 years, in comparison with the overall average of 35%. Support continues for these entrepreneurs even after exiting the program, with professional consultation and other resources offered to graduated businesses, especially during the pandemic.
For any growing business, exposure via events, pop-ups, and festivals matters, but the Bay Area food festival scene is tough to break into. In 2009, La Cocina started the Street Food Festival to create its own opportunity for the businesses in the program. The festival started as two blocks in front of the La Cocina kitchen in the Mission, growing and moving locations over the years until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. After a five-year hiatus, La Cocina brought the festival back for the 20th anniversary of the organization, with over 25 vendors along the beautiful SF waterfront.
Spoon got a behind-the-scenes tour of the festival before it began, learning the stories of some of the vendors and trying a few essential bites from each. First up was a collaboration between Reem’s California and De La Creamery— we tried a cardamom vanilla cold-brew ice cream float and a sesame tahini chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. De La Creamery is a pop-up specializing in ice creams with Mexican flavors, mostly based in Oakland and Berkeley (Find them at the South Berkeley Farmer’s Market every Tuesday!). I had previously heard about Reem’s from a list of best chocolate chip cookies in SF. Reem’s is an Arabic bakery and restaurant located in the Mission District, soon to be opening a new Oakland flagship bakery in Jack London Square. They emphasized their focus on building community across cultures through Arabic hospitality and warmth, reflected in the Mexican-Palestinian cross-cultural flavors of this La Cocina collab.
Our next stop was at Pacifico, a Colombian beach-style restaurant. Pacifico was born at La Cocina and started doing pop-ups a year ago, and they just opened their first brick-and-mortar in the Hayes Valley Jazz Center in SF. Normally more of a fine dining vibe, for the weekend they offered a Street Food Festival exclusive— a Colombian hotdog. This essential Colombian street food came with toppings like pineapple salsa, quail egg, and crushed potato chips to make it one of the best hotdogs I’ve ever had.
We then made our way over to Kitiya, which was serving Southern Thai specialties. We tried the pork rib, which was fall-off-the-bone tender with a rich curry flavor. Kitiya herself relayed to us how central food was to her happy moments and her family. I could relate— food is one of the most important ways I connect with my friends, family, and heritage. Perhaps the closest you can get to bottling up that feeling is taking home a jar of one of Kitiya’s sauces and curries, which she sells in grocery stores with the help of La Cocina.
The last stop on the tour was at Lunar Bakery, where we tried yuzu egg tarts. The tart yuzu jam perfectly completed the sweet egg custard, and the flaky pastry crust melted in my mouth. Jennie, the founder and baker, went to pastry school in Taiwan before working for well-known SF bakeries like Ariscault, Tartine, and Miette. When she decided to start her own business in 2020, it was out of the joy of making things for her friends and family. She noted that one of the biggest challenges was kitchen space— she baked out of her own home until she joined La Cocina. At the festival she sold baked goods like egg tarts, butter mochi, chiffon cake, and Taiwanese pineapple pastries.
We were able to try food from so many other amazing and creative businesses. We grabbed bottled matcha from Hippie Chai, which sells instant vegan chai and matcha. We also tried momos from Bini’s Kitchen, empanadas from Andina, fresh Leche de Tigre fish ceviche from Camucha’s Kitchen, creamy banana pudding with a creme brulee topping from Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement, juicy birria tacos from Mi Comedor, and crunchy ceviche beef tostadas from Xula (which also makes their own range of hot salsas).
Each of these businesses had something unique to offer, and a story that made flavors that much more special. La Cocina’s amazing work is allowing these stories to be heard, and any festival attendee could tell the passion these entrepreneurs have for their food is paying off. Stay tuned for more events from La Cocina, and in the meantime, be sure to check out the vendors at their brick-and-mortars or at other events!