¡Chao Pescao! Brings Cuban and Colombian Eats To SF

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought plenty of challenges to the restaurant industry. San Francisco restaurateur Rene Denis, who previously owned Soluna in the same space in Civic Center, was motivated to change his business concept during the pandemic and to focus back on his Cuban and Colombian roots at the new ¡Chao Pescao!.

Cuban and Colombian food are not widespread throughout San Francisco. Many bay area residents are not accustomed to a daily Café con leche with some pastelitos for example. It is almost shocking how little food from the Caribbean and South America is represented in the bay area. It doesn't mean people aren't trying though. Media Noche in the Mission has taken a modern approach to Cuban food. Isla Vida SF gave it a go in the Fillmor for some time until they closed shop.

Denis wants to keep things mostly traditional at his restaurant. Like many business owners, his motivation is to create something that he personally has been craving, but been unable to find locally, specially good rice and black beans - the basis of Cuban food.

Rene Denis grew up in New Jersey where food from places like Cuba and Colombia is omnipresent. For some time there was a restaurant in San Francisco off Valencia that served empanadas and pan de bono and helped satisfy Denis' craving for the food from his home country and unfortunately the restaurant suddenly closed down.

Then the pandemic hit. Soluna closed down for a few weeks and started doing takeout. Denis says he felt a need to do more affordable food and to be accessible. He started offering family meals with 4-5 entrees and sides to serve the needs of people during the first shutdown in March. Denis admits he was barely making it but was trying to keep his business alive.

During this downtime, Denis began messing with family recipes and making food people cannot usually access around the bay area. He partnered with a non-profit to begin feeding hospitals like many other restaurants did early on. People could donate directly to frontline workers and help keep people in the restaurant industry employed at the same time.

Customers enjoyed the lechon, ropa vieja, and a Mexican-style fried chicken made with Tajin and inspired Denis to make change.

When Denis received his Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan from the federal government and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), he decided to get to work creating a new concept and started painting and meeting with contractors. Denis bounced ideas off families and decided "you know what let's just go for this".

The plan was to wait for 50% dining to come back in November and Denis' plans were derailed when California Governor Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed rolled back dining both indoors and outdoors, significantly limiting his business plans.

When I asked him how he plans to weather this, he said, "I adjusted my menu to cater to take-out. Everything is built to travel well. I won't open until I can do a proper opening. We will focus on surviving on takeout and delivery right now".

City Lawsuit and Pandemic Restrictions

Denis has not been without his own controversy. In the early days of the pandemic, he joined with UC Hastings to launch a lawsuit against San Francisco and criticized the Tenderloin over a lack of planning to deal with a surge in homelessness and crime in the area as business from the area disappeared during the first lockdown and as workers began to work from home. San Francisco settled the lawsuit which demanded action.

I was curious if this was anti-homeless behavior or if this was really just a lack of government action to deal with what could be a worsening crisis during the pandemic.

Denis told me, "It was the worst I've seen in San Francisco. I would walk around the corner and it was impassible with tents set up everywhere."

Denis noted that the sidewalk to get to his business was unapproachable. He noted that with his business so close to City Hall, there is no way the city could not be aware.

I looked up what Supervisor Matt Haney said at the time:

Although not part of the lawsuit, Supervisor Matt Haney highlighted that many of the demands in the lawsuit are similar to his own initiatives he has pushed for the city to take including housing for the homeless in hotels, effective enforcement against drug dealing, and consideration of street closures to create more sidewalk space.

When discussing the current shutdown, Denis shared:

"It's a big thing right now. The biggest issue is people truly believe outdoor dining should be allowed. They aren't taking issue with people being able to hop on a plane and travel or go shopping". Indeed, as recently as a week ago thousands of people crowded into SFO ignoring COVID travel guidelines from the CDC.

"You're forcing an entire industry to shutdown for delivery yet people can go to Target. You have to pay an arm and a leg to have your food delivered. If it was up to the tech companies, they would charge 30% plus all the fees for delivery."

Denis managed to recently get a partnership with Bentobox that has allowed him to offset some delivery costs for customers and make it more attractive while he waits for reopening to come one day. The service allows him to also charge a flat delivery rate.

When discussing what things the city can do to help, Denis shared some more:

"The city is not making it easy for people to get access to grants. Everything is a lottery. Household incomes are required for business loans. It would be nice to get an email or phone call directly from the city explaining the current situation and asking how we are struggling."

Denis also discussed that the city is still taking business license fees and instituting other charges on businesses despite ordering lockdowns on them including a fee to the fire department for indoor dining, despite having non-existent customers inside. He called the fees as he struggles to keep his business alive "disheartening".

Photo Credit: Barbara Ve

The Cuban Sandwich

One of the things most interesting to me whenever someone opens a Cuban spot outside of my hometown in Tampa is their take on a Cuban Sandwich and where they source their ingredients for the sandwich.

Despite the love in San Francisco for sandwiches, Cuban bread is quite difficult to find. Denis told me that he is making his own Cuban bread fresh in-house after having difficulties sourcing it locally. This Cuban Sandwich was originally available at his prior concept, Soluna.

He switched out the regular mustard for Dijon mustard to create a bit of heat and also uses the same pork he uses in his lechon for the sandwich. It is braised for 8 hours and is pork shoulder from the bone. His ham comes surprisingly from Costco without shame. He said after many taste tests it was his favorite.

Being a Tampa native, we discussed the use of salami in Cuban Sandwiches. Tampa has claim to the official Cuban Sandwich and hosts an annual International Cuban Sandwich Festival that I judge. Tampa and Miami regularly fight over who created the Cuban Sandwich.

On the sandwich, Denis shares, "My Cuban Sandwich is not your thinner sandwich. It's beefier. It doesn't have salami but I'm going to try that".

Denis says he has a personally affinity for medianoche sandwiches as well and time will tell if those are available in the future.

Photo Credit: Barbara Ve

Black Beans and Cuban Food

Denis shares the roots of his menu: "The basis of all Cuban food is black beans and this is my Grandma's recipe. Before she passed away two years, we were sitting for awhile and she was too elderly to cook for us. My grandfather was now the cook which was a crazy experience for us. My grandma couldn't cook but wanted to feed us. They cooked for us and we decided we have to keep these beans in the family."

"When I started working on the menu I was surprised how close I got to my Grandma's recipe from memory. Little things like brown sugar to take it over the top. That was a basis of her recipe."

"The ropa vieja is a recipe of hers, but I changed it to make it more saucy. I wanted mine to be more traditional. The lechon is also her recipe, but it can be hard to source sour oranges".

Photo Credit: Barbara Ve

Looking at the future

Right now Denis has a concise menu due to pandemic restrictions. He shares, "Once we can open up, I'll be doing plenty of shellfish and seafood. You have to have your mariscos. Especially with a name like Chao Pescao."

Most of the menu will remain traditional Cuban food with a few specials and other offerings to attract different audiences.

He goes on, "I was looking at what life will be like on the other side of this, there's going to be an economical crunch. I want my place to be for the working class. Good cocktails, but also somewhere anyone can come. Less than $100 for a party to have a good time overall."

We discussed how he will overcome the challenge of introducing much of this food to the area and Denis explains, "I'd like to think my menu is approachable. I had the luxury to pick and choose from different cuisines. It's all about the way you present the food. You have to spell out the food you are selling if it is unfamiliar".

"Colombian empanadas are something most people around here don't know about, but it's the best".

It seems the biggest journey will be for Denis to make that known to diners in San Francisco.

¡Chao Pescao! Restaurant is located at 272 McAllister Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 and can be reached at (415) 621-2200. It is open Tuesday through Saturday. You can visit them at chaopescaosf.com.