'We are still trying': Bini's Kitchen holds on in SoMa

"It used to be hustling and bustling. There were lines, so many people around,"

"I don't know how long we can stay here,"

"I get back on my feet every day and then try to come to work,"

"This window has been broken twice, and we are in a state where we cannot fix it anymore,"

Binita "Bini" Pradhan and her sister, Sumita Giri, run Bini's Kitchen on Sixth and Howard Streets. The restaurant opened a sit-down location in SoMa in 2019 after graduating from La Cocina's incubator and maintaining a pick-up window near Union Square. Lunch-hour tables sit empty despite opening at 11 a.m. The pandemic reduced neighborhood foot traffic, increased visible poverty, and led to vandalism. Staff fear and heavily soiled entrances caused occasional closures in January. City Hall advanced and then passed a corner-store curfew ordinance for West SoMa and parts of the Tenderloin. The sisters spend hours removing people appearing to suffer from addiction and cleaning suspected human feces, and a repeatedly broken window remains taped and unrepaired while the kitchen stays immaculate.

Read at Mission Local