Bayview residents to finally get taste of trend: food trucks.
Historically black area gets a homegrown park
On a strip of Third Street that for the past 15 years has been little more than overgrown patches of grass, broken concrete and the occasional pumpkin patch, Harold Agee saw a future for nearby blackowned food businesses.
The Bayview native is a barbecue savant in his community, never less than a phone call or Facebook message away for anyone interested in hiring his popup, Big H BBQ, to cook ribs and pork chops. Still, serving a crowd of 80 as part of a catering gig for friends isn’t the same as breaking into San Francisco’s food mainstream.
He sees his fortunes changing with the neighborhood’s new food park, Bayview Bistro.
The project is a community investment tied to the more than $1 billion worth of construction on the Southeast Treatment Plant, the city’s largest wastewater facility, located in BayviewHunters Point. Funding for the food park’s $266,000 budget comes mainly from contractors working for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Agee has agreed to be one of the park’s first tenants.
Styled after San Francisco’s StrEat Food Park in South of Market and Spark Social, a foodtruck park and beer garden in Mission Bay, the Bayview Bistro opened Wednesday, complete with benches, tables, artwork and an undeniable air of hipsterchic familiarity.
The recognizable foodpark traits end there. The Bayview Bistro sits disjointedly between Hudson and Newhall streets in an underdeveloped commercial corridor. It’s surrounded by a historically black neighborhood in a city rapidly losing its black populace. These factors combined make the Bayview Bistro unlike any food venture in the city.
All entrepreneurs involved with the park have to either reside in BayviewHunters Point, own or operate a business in the area, or possess a cottage food license there, which allows home cooks to sell certain food items.
“There’s hasn’t been anything like this out here before, so you have to feel it’s going to make a difference,” Agee said. “It gives black businesses that chance they need to make it out here. It gives them a presence.”
The other tenant, for now, is Nima Romney, who operates the Southern and Latininspired food truck Soul Bowl’z. The Bayview Bistro has a yearlong lease for its 4101 Third St. property, after which the lot will become the site of a housing project. For now, Agee and Romney are slated to occupy the space for two or three months.
The food project wasn’t born from overwhelming demand along Third Street for a foodtruck park. City officials believe an influx of workers for the Southeast Treatment Plant project could benefit from having a place to dine for lunch, one that’s filled with local businesses. The park is open for lunch Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and for dinner on community night the last Friday of the month from 5 to 8 p.m.
“It’s not just about eating, but it’s also about getting to know the businesses and the people behind the counter so our workers become invested in the community and feel a greater connection to the residents they serve,” Mayor London Breed told The Chronicle in a statement.
Five plant contractors have contributed $110,000. Another $80,000 has come from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Another $76,000 is still to be funded, though a portion of that will come from fees paid by a cut of vendors’ sales, city officials said. The rest will come from fundraising efforts. La Cocina, a San Francisco food incubator that has helped launch a number of female and minorityowned businesses in the region, is providing technical assistance to the park’s tenants.
Even as it opens for customers, the food park has unanswered questions. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which is managing the space, hasn’t determined how long businesses can remain in the space or how they’ll rotate in and out.
“We’ve gone into this understanding that it’s a pilot program, and it’s a great spot to have it. We’re learning about the permitting process and the rotations and how it’s going to meet a need for workers in that area,” said Tracy Zhu, the commission’s community benefits and social responsibility manager. “We’re working the kinks out and trying to get it to scale. because there’s going to be hundreds of workers out there over a decade.”
Romney opened Soul Bowl’z in October 2017. Since then, she’s bounced around the Bay Area serving red beans and rice, chicken and waffles, and braised beef ribs. When she was approached by the city to bring her truck to the Bayview park, she said she saw it as an opportunity to have a leg up in a tough industry.
“Running a food business out here is hard. But hopefully the food park, no matter what’s bringing it here, will draw some type of buzz to the area, bring in those diverse crowds willing to spend some money on food they haven’t tried before. I might even put up a sign outside of my truck with some soul food facts if they want them,” Romney said with a laugh. “This could mean everything if it works out and becomes successful.”
The project comes as BayviewHunters Point, which has historically struggled with high retail vacancies and some of the highest unemployment rates in the city, is seeing change. The Office of Economic and Workforce Development says new development and other projects along the southeastern waterfront, including the BayviewHunters Point area, will bring 35,000 new jobs and add 20,000 households.
“There are pine trees on Third Street. There’s never been pine trees on Third, so you know things are changing out here,” Agee said, joking about the plantings that come with new development. “This park is an opportunity for me. I see it this way: The area is changing and you can either sit by the side or you can dive in, get yours and survive. Blackowned businesses out here are going to do that, survive.”