“I’ve been in San Francisco working at  Mission Pie for about 10 years. For about the last 7 or 8 I’ve been living in the mission.”

“I’ve been in San Francisco 10 years too.”

“Oh yeah, it was the time to come.”

“For sure! Where were you before?”

“Before I was living in Boston.”

“I was born in Boston!”

“It’s a different city.”

“Yep. What’s your favorite thing about living in the mission?”

“A lot of things that are really one piece. The density. How life happens on the street. The weather. It’s relatively flat. There’s always all kinds of people walking around in a way I don’t see in other neighborhoods. Young, old, black, brown…everything. I know a lot has changed a lot in this neighborhood but I feel like there’s so much life here.”

“It’s vibrant for sure. What’s your involvement with the Mission Community Market and how to you want to see La Placita grow and affect the community?”

“We were a vendor at the market for one season and we’re definitely a friend of the market. I shop there and a lot of people that work here shop there. The most significant relationship we have is with out business as a customer of the market. We buy our apples from Dave Hale who has an apple orchard out of Sebastopol. He drops off to us before he goes to the market. We buy several hundred pounds of apples from him weekly and that makes the trip down to San Francisco make economic sense for him and his business. That really pleases me because we buy directly from a lot of growers and we have a mutually beneficial relationship. We’ve been buying apples from him for about 8 years. We’re not every year trying to find the hot new thing at a cheaper price. We build long term relationships with our vendors across the board. We’re taking the long view.”

“I respect that. I’m trying to do that in my life do. It’s a point of maturity. I feel like Mission Pie is a pretty famous spot in the city. I knew about it before I ever came here. What do you think it is that makes it so unique?”

“I think a few things. The people, the food, and the purpose. It’s very much our intention to have everyone feel welcome. And not only welcome but that everybody wants to be there. So even from the beginning making decisions like not having internet. It’s a very visible spot, we have these big windows, and we all walk through the city wondering, ‘Is that a place for me?’. I didn’t want people who live in the neighborhood to walk by and see people on $3,000 computers. That just sends a subtle signal that this is for a certain kind of person. We design our menu so that there’s something that someone who’s 3 years old can eat, and something that someone who’s 93 years old can eat. We’re not trying to get written up in magazines, we’re not trying to win awards. We’re trying to make very wholesome, very nourishing food, with very high quality ingredients that are nutritionally sound, ecologically sound, seasonally appropriate, and delivered in a way that’s delicious and fun, not complicated or fussy. We also do every thing we can in this increasing expensive city to keep our prices down so that the greatest number of people can come. As far as who we look to hire, there’s a lot of food businesses where people could be making more money, we’re looking for people who are dedicated to what we’re trying to do and dedicated to feeding the people that live in the mission.”

“That’s beautiful. What’s something you love doing outside work?”

“Being out in nature on a hike. I love taking in the natural beauty and spaces in this area.”

“What are your love languages?”

“What does that mean?”

“How do you like to give and receive love? Like gifts, words of affirmation, quality time, touch?”

“Food. That’s my part of this business and I’ve been working in food for more than 20 years. It’s a lot of how I meet new people, going to farmers markets, talking to the growers and the vendors, and customers. On another level, deep honesty.  I had a Passover seder at my house being able to get together and talk to people about difficult stuff in a real way. It was like, ‘here’s what I’m worried about’. We’re all in more communication than we’ve ever been before with social media and all that. That’s a certain level of contact. I feel like the more presence that’s had in my life the more I crave real talk.”

“I feel you. Last question, what did you want to be when you were 10?”

“A writer. A poet.”

“Still writing poetry?”

“A little bit, yeah.”

“Have any poems you can recite to me?”

“Haha, no, I don’t think so. You can come in and have some lemonade though.”

Come out on 4/30 for the grand opening of La Placita at the Mission Community Market: http://missioncommunitymarket.org/