Pasta and pizza will continue to reign supreme in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, for now.
After long-anticipated plans to open a location in the area, El Farolito, a local favorite string of taquerias, has been denied permission by the city.
San Francisco’s ban on chains stopped the move, the city’s Planning Department Chief of Staff Dan Sider said on Thursday. The city’s planning code defines a business with 11 or more locations and standardized signage or branding as a chain. A review is only triggered when there are plans for a 12th location, according to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The plan to open a location at 1230 Grant Ave. has been up in the air since last month, after questions about whether or not it counted as a chain came up with the city.
Some locations are called “El Favorito” instead of El Farolito, and have slightly different signs or branding logos. But the city ultimately decided the Grant Avenue spot would still be the business’ 12th location.
"Given the code’s prohibition of formula retail uses in North Beach, this new El Farolito would not be allowed," said Sider in an email.
The owners were notified on Tuesday but the city hasn’t heard back, Sider said.
The business is currently run by siblings Irene and Santiago Lopez, whose father Salvador "Don Chava" Lopez opened the first El Farolito in 1983.
Despite the initial disappointment, it might still be possible to open a slightly different El Farolito. If the taqueria business considered changing the menu or the signage, it would no longer be considered a chain, Zoning Administrator Corey Teague told co-owner Irene Lopez over email.
Chains are completely prohibited in North Beach, Chinatown and Hayes Valley. In other San Francisco neighborhoods, businesses can seek a conditional use authorization to open.
But the neighborhood is rallying around El Farolito. A petition calling on the city to change the restrictions has collected 800 signatures as of Thursday afternoon, according to Danny Sauter, the former president of North Beach Neighbors, who started the petition Wednesday.
"Something is broken if we treat a small, family-owned Mexican restaurant the same way as a Starbucks or a Mcdonald's," Sauter wrote in the petition. “We should reshape these outdated rules to help fill empty storefronts and allow small businesses that are growing, but are not yet truly chains, to open in North Beach and neighborhoods across San Francisco."
The city could increase the threshold of locations to 19 which would allow growing, family-run businesses some flexibility, as well as allowing businesses to make their case for opening through a conditional use process, said Sauter.
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