The San Francisco Public Library maintains an archive of the city’s restaurant menus, some of which date back more than a century.
From the hundreds of menus in the archive, we found these five files from the Mission District.
He once tried to sell homemade sauerkraut. Now, Mark Kurlyandchik, a lifelong foodie from a Russian family of small business owners, writes about the business of food. He’s excited to explore how immigrant entrepreneurs influence the experience of eating in the Mission.
More by Mark Kurlyandchik
Slide 6 is a good history mystery! I looked in the directory and found that address listed as the Rio Grande bakery in 1938. That address is also currently listed as a bakery now (not sure if it’s the same building throughout all these years). Couldn’t find anything about Club Habana or Wolf’s Den other than a men’s barbershop in the FiDi in (at least) the late 70s/early 80s (I’d put the flier somewhere late 60s early 70s if I had to take a guess), but I also had to stop looking before I went too deep in a rabbit hole before bedtime…
El Tazumal was on 20th St. during the 80s…They had great burritos. They went out of business when a car crashed into the front of the restaurant. I don’t think they ever re-opended after that.