It started at Isabel’s table.
In Mexico City, holidays meant cooking for the whole family. Isabel Caudillo grew up watching her mother and seven sisters prepare those meals. Her mother’s mole verde is still the recipe we use at El Buen Comer.
Lunch in the Tenderloin
When our family moved to San Francisco in 2001, Isabel started serving lunch in our apartment. Neighbors would knock, take a seat and eat whatever guisado she had on the stove that day, with rice, beans and tortillas made by hand.
In Mexico City, that kind of lunch is called comida corrida. For people who had grown up eating it, finding Isabel’s table in San Francisco meant finding a familiar meal far from home.
Saturdays in Noe Valley
In 2007, a friend pointed Isabel toward La Cocina, where she found support to turn those apartment lunches into a business. By 2008, our family had a stand at the Noe Valley Farmers’ Market. Tamales became part of our Saturday routine, and our dad, Juan Carlos, has been part of the market since those early days.
A dining room of our own
In June 2016, we opened at 3435 Mission Street in Bernal Heights. Isabel, Juan Carlos and their sons ran the restaurant together. When it came time to decorate, the family brought in crafts from Mexico and the little cars the boys had played with as children.
If you’d like to taste where our story began, try the mole verde con puerco. Isabel simmers pork with tomatillos, herbs and chiles, the way her mother taught her. We serve it with rice, beans and a warm tortilla.
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