Entrepreneurs at San Francisco-based nonprofit La Cocina’s Municipal Marketplace food hall and its culinary incubator are complaining about what they see as a symbolic pattern and exploitation at the organization.
For Sarello Buyco, these problems came to a head on November 9, when the store manager asked him if he wanted to move Buyco’s pop-up cafe out of the food hall. Founded by Santana Tapia, JoJo Ty and Shannon Amitin, the trans-owned Fluid Cooperative Café opened in the market in August 2021. La Cocina said Fluid has a monthly contract for the pop-up space.
Buyco said the move request stemmed from months of conflict between Fluid employees and La Cocina marketplace employees. Specifically, Buyco said he felt La Cocina had not respected his cafe’s policy towards police officers on duty.
In a written statement, La Cocina staff, which is led by executive director Debbie Alvarez-Rodriguez and assistant director Leticia Landa, told The Standard that while the organization welcomes everyone to the food hall, it’s every business owner’s decision to make respects who they want or who will not serve.
JoJo Ty poses at the entrance to La Cocina Municipal Marketplace in San Francisco on March 30, 2023. | Jesse Rogala
Conflict about refusal to serve with the police
According to Buyco, on March 31, 2022, Fluid’s baristas were preparing to close so they could host a Trans Day of Visibility fashion show when a police officer showed up to order coffee. After explaining that Fluid did not typically serve with the police, this officer complained to a La Cocina employee.
Shortly after that encounter, Buyco said, La Cocina arranged for a police captain and “a symbolic transgender policewoman” to engage in a dialogue with Buyco and his fellow co-operatives, which he says was felt to be coercive.
“We will not serve the police if our lives are constantly threatened by the police,” Buyco said. “Police officers can take off their uniforms, but we cannot take off our skin color and we cannot take off our impermanence.”
Co-owner Tapia said she shared Buyco’s frustration, adding that the way the nonprofit handled the conflict between Fluid and the police cleared things up for her.
“It was triggering, but it also showed us that the space wasn’t made for us,” she said. “Police officers don’t keep us safe – we get scared when there are police officers around.”
La Cocina employees wrote in an email to The Standard that they did not observe the interaction between Fluid’s owners and the police, but only became aware of the situation on April 5, 2022. Staff said it was the SFPD Tenderloin Station police captain who suggested dialogue and those who followed agreed to a meeting.
“The Fluid team gave us the opportunity to create a welcoming space for the queer and trans community,” they wrote. “We have learned from and acknowledged her decision not to serve in the police force, which is based on her community’s historical experiences with law enforcement.”
Ty said they viewed the time in the marketplace with mixed feelings, particularly after the encounter with the police.
“We’re always fighting to survive,” they said. “But it means so much to other black radical trans people in the Bay Area to see Fluid here at the Civic Center.”
La Cocina executives told The Standard that they asked Fluid for a move because they wanted to open the pop-up to La Cocina program participants.
The Fluid Cooperative has launched a crowdfunding campaign with the goal of raising $100,000 to open a brick-and-mortar coffee shop at 142 McAllister St. — a space that has been vacant for about three years and was last owned by the Urbean Café.
In the meantime, Buyco said Fluid plans to host more pop-ups across the city. Fluid’s last scheduled opening day in La Cocina Municipal Marketplace is June 25th – the last Sunday of Pride month. Ty said they want to value Fluid’s time remaining in the marketplace, which is currently home to seven other companies.
“The departure is sad,” they said. “But I’m excited about the future of Fluid and look forward to continuing to support the talented people who work in the market.”
Overall, Buyco says he feels La Cocina has strayed from its mission to nurture BIPOC chefs.
“La Cocina is not an organization that knows how to live in community or with the community,” he said.
In an email to The Standard, La Cocina employees expressed their gratitude to the Fluid team.
“Fluid is a wonderful company with a strong mission, and we’re excited that the city of San Francisco and the community are supporting its next steps,” they wrote. “We are committed to advancing our mission and providing La Cocina program participants and alumni the opportunity to formalize and continue to grow their businesses through the marketplace.”
Santana Tapia (left) and Sarello Buyco (right) pose in front of the Fluid Cooperative Cafe. | Jesse Rogala/The Standard
“Tokenism” in Black History Month?
According to La Cocina’s website, the nonprofit’s mission is to “empower low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses.” However, Tiffany Keeling told The Standard that she felt La Cocina was guilty of tokenism and exploitation.
The Pacifica-based chef has been building her Mexican soul food kitchen, P-Town Birrias, with the nonprofit for about a year. She runs her business as a traveling pop-up company, not in the marketplace, and she told The Standard that even as a member of the current founding cohort, gaining access to La Cocina’s kitchen facilities is difficult.
Still, Keeling said that Black History Month was a real turning point in her view of the organization. On the last night of February, La Cocina hosted The Gathering in the Market Square – a ticketed family festival celebrating the chefs and artists of the African diaspora. Keeling was one of the featured chefs, but she said La Cocina’s approach to the event left a bad taste in her mouth.
She explained that the last time she contributed to a dinner in the Market Place, the organization served the food on fine china, but when she asked if that would apply to The Gathering as well, a staff member told her that she would use paper plates for that reason “Wasn’t worth the hassle.” Keeling said that reaction made her feel underappreciated.
“I think the problem that a lot of people have at La Cocina is the obvious favoritism that comes out within the organization,” she said.
On April 10, 2023, people eat lunch at the municipal marketplace of La Cocina in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. | Sarah Holtz/The Standard
She added that the chefs at the Black History Month dinner were reimbursed for their ingredients, but not their time.
“Cooking soul food is a lot of work,” she added. “We took leftover food that the slave master gave us – now it’s called good food.”
Keeling said she was verbally acclaimed by La Cocina for her achievements as a black chef and then mistreated backstage – a sentiment she said she shared with other black chefs on the show.
“It’s just not fair to the black people in La Cocina,” she said. “They use us as props and exploit our culture. I don’t want to be used.”
La Cocina staff took note of Keeling’s feedback in an email to The Standard.
“We respect Tiffany’s perspective and are taking steps to address it,” they wrote. “We strive to create open lines of communication with our entrepreneurs to learn how we as employees or our processes can improve. Feedback like this is an important reminder that there is still work to be done.”
