San Francisco community rallies behind legacy restaurant after repeat break-ins

El Faro’s owner Raymunda Ramirez loves working behind the counter at her restaurant. She grins as she prepares burritos and chats with customers. Ramirez is proud of the food she serves and of the legacy of this San Francisco business, in fact, the business is officially registered as a legacy business in the city.

However, the restaurant on 20th and Folsom is dealing with the aftermath of several recent break-ins and Ramirez was considering calling it quits. But after the community stepped in, the owner is reconsidering.

Ramirez said this restaurant has been in the Mission for five decades and she has been working there for 45 years. For twenty of those years, Ramirez has been the owner.

But a big blow came this month when Ramirez said the restaurant was broken into on three separate occasions.

“I feel so sad and angry,” Ramirez said.

In total, Ramirez says the break-ins cost her more than $30,000 and rattled her sense of safety. Initially, she thought she needed to close the restaurant down.

“We are hearing that she might want to close the restaurant, and this is a staple, a legacy here in San Francisco,” said Cutberto Ramirez, a community member in the Mission. He and others in the community rallied as many people as they could for an event.

“We just want to uplift her spirits, help raise some funds, and hope she doesn’t close it,” Cutberto Ramirez said.

The community stepped in on Saturday, organizing a pop-up event with music, raffles and local vendors outside the restaurant. Neighbors and patrons were all encouraged to come out and support El Faro.

“This is one of the first places my husband brought me when we were dating, so it’s memories,” said Lani Montes.

Montes and her family drove two hours from Roseville to attend this event.

“We heard on the news [it’s] going to be closing down, and my son decided, ‘Let’s take a trip in the city,’” Montes said.

The outpouring of support from the community has left Ramirez with a change of heart. She said Saturday that she does not plan to close the restaurant after all.

Ramirez said that seeing all of the people who showed up to support her Saturday made her “very, very happy because I [didn’t] expect it’s going to happen like that.”

Ramirez plans to continue selling food and recovering lost costs. She and her family have started a GoFundMe page to raise money for this effort as well.