About a month ago, the just over a year-old Mexican restaurant Quereme quietly shut its doors and has been revamping its interior in its 2801 Folsom St. location to reopen in June as Alma, a Peruvian-influenced restaurant.
Alma’s owners are Juan Rosas Lopez, who also owns Taqueria Vallarta at 3033 24th St. and associate Jose Ruffrage. They will be renting the space from Mission oral surgeon Dr. Juan Luque, who purchased the two-story building in 2015.
Alma will operate as a full-service restaurant downstairs, but its new proprietors also plan to open a lounge area in the space above the restaurant, according to Ruffrage.
The ground-floor space is permitted for full-restaurant use and was approved on May 23 for a Type 41 license, allowing them to serve beer and wine on site.
A permit for interior renovations to the existing restaurant – for a new bar, counter and signage – in the amount of some $15,000 was approved by the Planning Department in April.
Before the short-lived Quereme, the space served for some two decades as the home for the chicken grill La Parrilla. The building was slated for demolition in 2014 to make room for a 20-unit condo building, but was taken off the market following opposition from the local merchant’s association.