What’s Inside La Cocina’s Long-Awaited Marketplace, Opening April 5

The La Cocina Municipal Food Hall features seven different food businesses, a bar, and more

Ellen Fort | Eater SF

It’s been over two years since La Cocina broke ground on its ambitious food hall in the Tenderloin, and almost five years since the project was announced. Now, it’s preparing to open its doors to the dining public on April 5, just weeks after San Francisco has allowed indoor dining at a higher capacity. It’s been a long wait for vendors and would-be diners: construction was almost completed when the lockdowns began in March 2020.

La Cocina is one of San Francisco’s most prolific and loved nonprofit incubators, helping women of color develop and launch their food businesses. Superstars like Reem’s California, El Buen Comer, Nyum Bai, and Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas have all passed through its kitchen in the Mission, with dozens more opening brick-and-mortar restaurants around the Bay Area. Its new 7,000-square-foot marketplace has taken over the vacant post office, previously owned by the Federal government, at 101 Hyde Street, on a block that former Supervisor Jane Kim has called “one of the toughest intersections in the Tenderloin.” For the next four years, it will operate in the space in an interim capacity before a planned low-income housing development breaks ground...