On a sunny day, under the shady trees on Folsom Street, 61-year-old Felipe Reyes Peréz stands as he does every day at noon, his smiling eyes peeking out over his mask.
Drivers honk their horns and trucks clang by as Reyes Peréz stands beneath an umbrella with a banner announcing in bright orange letters: “Deliciosos Tacos de Canasta.” In Mexico, the warm tacos sell in large baskets and are likely to be made at home. Here, Reyes Peréz makes his early in the morning at Los Yaquis, the taqueria at 324 South Van Ness Ave, across the street from Precita Park.
A woman stands nearby, eating her order out of a bright-red plastic basket as she talks animatedly in Spanish with Reyes Peréz. She wants more and, as he opens his cart, the smell of corn tortillas and braised meat escapes into the air. He fills a white plastic bag with tacos for the woman. She counts them and then hands Reyes Peréz a $20 bill.
“Is there another way to pay?” a woman asks in Spanish. No; cash only.
Reyes Peréz has lived in San Francisco since 2001, and has worked in various restaurants. Once the pandemic struck, he needed to find another source of income.
“I felt the strain of my expenses and taking care of my family,” he says, explaining that he is on Medi-Cal and needs dialysis treatments. “That is why I am here, let’s say, selling my tacos.”
And here, for now, means the corner of 24th and Folsom streets. But that could change as he has shifted his location several times. Earlier he had been in front of Galería de la Raza at 2779 Folsom St. The gallery allowed him to set up and sell his tacos after he was kicked off this corner of Folsom. That happened at the start of the pandemic.
It’s unclear how long Reyes Peréz will be able to remain here, since he fled this spot five years ago after the health department got multiple complaints from a nearby restaurant, he said. He doesn’t know which restaurant complained, and he was happy in front of the Galería, but then construction started and he had to move.
“I was hidden there,” he said, referring to the scaffolding that made it difficult for customers to see him.
He keeps his customers abreast of where he will be on Instagram, opening at 7:30 a.m. and selling until 1 p.m. or until the tacos run out. His day, however, starts at 3 a.m. in the kitchen of Los Yaquis, which he pays to use part-time. He starts early because he says tacos de canastas require extra work, taking up to an hour and a half to make just one type of taco.
“This food is not like everything else, almost no one sells them. Many of the restaurants do not make this because it takes a lot of labor,” Reyes Peréz said.
Tacos de canasta or basket tacos are, unlike street tacos, prepared in advance for the bustling commuters in the early hours of the morning. The favorites, he said, are the traditional Mexican tacos de canasta, which are filled with pork, chorizo with beans, or chorizo with potatoes.
The traditional ones sell out first, he says.
Many of his recipes are inspired by his experience in various restaurants, the restaurant where he worked before starting his own pop-up.
“Everything is calculated here,” he says, pointing to his head and referring to the amount of spice he uses.
What he’s found, he said, is that people come from far and wide for his fare.
“From everywhere … I have people from everywhere.”