Good Taste: Time to save some legacy food and drink classics

In the latest edition of our weekly food column, Good Taste challenges diners to give new support to some old favorites.

I spend a lot of time chasing down new restaurants and predicting future food trends, and perhaps not enough time honoring our classics.

Just yesterday, for example, I pulled up to the fresh Hyphy Burger in West Oakland, which has been open the past few weekends as they train staff and get ready to launch a daily schedule, with a drive-thru. It was unfortunately closed, so I didn’t get to try a burger and a stunna shake, but I was tempted to ghost ride the repurposed school bus that’s in the parking lot. A collaboration between influencer Bayareafoodz and rapper Guapdad 4000, it’s a joy to see them open in the neighborhood where they grew up, and contribute to the independently owned food scene in the Bay Area.

But as I BARTed home, I got teary as I read Nico Madrigal-Yankowski’s SFGATE article about the 37-year-old New Delhi Restaurant in San Francisco being in danger of closing—not because Ranjan Dey’s food isn’t world class, because it assuredly is, but because people throughout the Bay Area and beyond are afraid to go out in downtown San Francisco, and what few conventions are coming to the area are tending to provide their own catering. It’s warm, safe, and delicious inside New Delhi, just saying. 

The menu is more diverse and extensive than what you’ll find in other Indian restaurants in the city, and if you’re lucky enough to talk to Dey, you’ll quickly understand what a treasure he is here and back in India in terms of his philanthropic and compassionate heart. He told Madrigal-Yankowski that he’s having to tap into his savings to keep paying his crew, who have all been with him for decades. This should not be happening.

It’s been open over 30 years, but I just recently got to have dinner at Da Flora in North Beach, another mom and pop restaurant that offers something special and individual to San Francisco. My friend Kritta, a rapper who shot his “ILY” video inside the restaurant, took me there to see his cousin Darren Lacey, who owns the restaurant with his wife and chef Jen McMahon. They’ve worked in restaurants since they were able to work. You’ll never get the same attention or culinary care in a soulless chain restaurant, and we need to keep businesses like these open. 

If you browse the registry of the Legacy Business Program from the San Francisco Office of Small Business, which includes New Delhi and Da Flora, you may notice some local businesses that have recently closed or are currently sounding the alarm that they may have to soon.

The registry includes a number of different kinds of business categories, including bakery, bar/entertainment venue, beer/wine/liquor, butcher, food wholesale, grocery stores, ice cream parlors, and restaurants. You might already be supporting a number of them. If you’re in a position to do so, why not pick one or 30 of them and go try something new to you? Call it the Legacy challenge.

Tamara publishes the California Eating website, newsletter, and zine.