The Bay Area Restaurant System Was Always Broken. How Do We Fix It?

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bay Area food industry was in a quiet but persistent crisis. The majority of restaurant workers earned far below a living wage for the region, even for jobs with tips factored in. Steadily rising residential and commercial rents meant that restaurant owners swallowed slim margins as an industry standard that would outlive their ambitions. Farmworkers across the state toiled from dusk until dawn with no employer or government safety nets to count on.

Then the pandemic hit and “everything changed,” said Mourad Lahlou, the chef and owner of Mourad and Aziza in San Francisco. “It shattered what was solid, and it exposed what was weak.”

From farms to restaurants and workers, there’s a lot of uncertainty that hangs over food systems and its fragile infrastructure. Amidst the crisis, is there potential to rebuild a more equitable food industry? What solutions could address the flaws that predate the pandemic? These are the questions we asked seven Bay Area food figures who are grappling with long-lived issues magnified by a new reality.