Hello friends,
After an unusually hot week in the Bay Area, my brain is finally cooling off and I can sit for a few hours and write some things. I wanted to thank you all for showing up to our August and early September events. Doing pop-ups doesn’t come naturally to me, and serving a high volume of people is still novel. Thank you for showing up!
Thank you for having us and for supporting us. I am trying to make Bolita more visible, and more available. Events like these help me reach more people, and further disseminate my enthusiasm/fascination with nixtamalization and masa.
Pop-Up / Market Dates
WED 9/14 - Mezcal Dinner with Leyendas de Mezcal. SAN FRANCISCO. Tahona Mercado (1168 Leavenworth). 7:30-9pm. $125 (cocktail & mezcal pairing included).
Make a reservation H E R E
THU 9/15 - San Francisco Foodwise Mission Market 3:00pm-7:00pm
Our last regular market of the season!!!!!
PASTEL : 9/16, 9/23, 9/30 Order Through Pastel for a limited menu of our items. Use Code “BOLITA” Order H E R E
BOLITA 2.0
Our last regular day at the FoodWise Mission Community Market is this Thursday, 9/15.
I loved being at the FoodWise Thursday market, but it is absurdly tiring. We work a few days prior, roasting salsas, shopping for ingredients at the markets, stewing beans, etc. And actual day of the market, I usually get up at 4:30am. We get to the kitchen early to grind maíz, knead, make tortillas, package items, label everything, and pack. I get home around 12pm for a quick shower and snack and then head to San Francisco to unpack, setup and get ready for the 3pm start time. By the time most of you come by around 5:30pm, I’ve been working for 12 hours. I get home around 9pm, after a 16 hour work day.
This amount of labor, plus the market’s overall lower foot-traffic and sales, has made it an easy decision to drop this market. When I started this endeavor and decided to make it a “business,” I wanted to create something sustainable for myself. This is exhaustion combined with the market’s ever fluctuating sales both add to my stress and anxiety in a way that blocks me from creatively solving longer term problems or focus on more thoughtful growth. As much as I love going to the Mission every week, I really love getting rest and approaching Bolita with joy and excitement.
What does this mean for Bolita?
Not much is changing. We are still going to be at Tahona Mercado in San Francisco. You can still get our macha at Oaktown Spice and Rainbow. You can still order via Pastel Every week. We will still have pop-ups and special market dates (We’ll be back in the Mission for Dia de Los Muertos 10/27).
But, we will be doing more dinners, more private events, classes, more pop-ups serving hot food, and more collaborations. I am going to focus on more projects that bring me joy and help build a version of Bolita that I want to create into a brick and mortar space.
You can find us on the menu of Greens restaurant through the end of summer. We will be featured on Daytrip’s menu soon. Tacos Oscar is reopening on Mondays and will exclusively use our masa for their Monday menu. We are doing a Mezcal Paired dinner with our friends at Tahona and Leyendas de Mezcal (a few seats are left, snag a ticket, these are very fun!!). We have some more fun events/dinners coming up in September and October.
I want to focus on creating more opportunities for you to enjoy Bolita’s food as if it was coming from a cafe/restaurant.
Want to celebrate a small gathering? Email us hola@bolitamasa.com. Let us feed you! Tell your friends about us!
For more visual content, you can follow my Instagram @bolitamasa