Another day, another business closure in San Francisco (you'll never guess why)https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/07/13/another-day-another-business-closure-in-san-francisco-youll-never-guess-why-n564533La Cocina opened in the Tenderloin in 2021. The concept was a single space with a bunch of different food options. It was always intended to be a temporary arrangement but not quite this temporary.
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As with every other business that has closed this year, there are multiple reasons. For one thing, the decline of foot traffic thanks to people working from home means there just isn’t the lunch rush there might have been prior to the pandemic. But the city’s other well-known problems also played a role. Wafa Bahloul, a chef manning one of the stalls at La Cocina, described the situation to the SF Chronicle:
“We worked very hard — every business here, not just me — to bring more people here, to let people know about this amazing place,” she said. “But what happened outside versus inside was totally opposite. The best solution was to just shut the doors.
She said the sidewalks outside were too dangerous and unpleasant to lure people to dinner as night fell, meaning the cooks were almost entirely reliant on a lunchtime crowd in a city with many workers still toiling from home.
Her husband, who works with her, recently witnessed a shooting outside La Cocina. Drug use, drug dealing, public defecation and urination, and trash are common sights on the sidewalks outside La Cocina before it opens and after it shuts. During operating hours, the block is mostly clear — but only because La Cocina was spending $275,000 a year on security it couldn’t afford.
The basic concept of La Cocina (The Kitchen) is several restaurants serving a few of their best entrees under one roof. This concept is working fairly well in the South Bay at Local Kitchens, which has several locations. In addition to the multiple restaurant concept, it is also women-owned businesses only.
But La Concina is in SF, and in what is probably the most challenging area, the Tenderloin (the hang-out for druggies, alkies, and bums longer than I've been alive). So all the problem some people want to believe pervade all of SF are in fact concentrated there. For all the god intentions, the Tenderloin is probably one of the worst possible choices for a struggling start-up.
