<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Lozano sisters\u2014co-owners of L\u2019s Caff\u00e9, Gabby, Lourdes and Rosy\u2014were growing up in Mexico City, their mother ran a soda fountain. In the afternoons when the girls would get out from school, they would come and help their mother at the shop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe wanted something like that, similar to what my mother had,\u201d remembers Lourdes. So they decided they would open their own coffee shop in the Mission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When L\u2019s Caff\u00e9 first opened its doors in November of 2005, they lacked the permits necessary for food preparation, so for the first three months they were in business, all they could sell was coffee and pastries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the early days, the sisters\u2019 parents played a pivotal role. \u201cWe\u2019re a very tight family,\u201d said Lourdes. \u201cWe will always have each other\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their mother, Do\u00f1a Martha Ju\u00e1rez \u201cstood at the front door giving dripped coffee samples to pedestrians,\u201d remembers Gabby. And their father, Don Alfredo Lozano, headed the remodeling project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When L\u2019s Caffe opened, they, along with Philz Coffee, were the only two coffee shops on the 24th Street corridor. When Erick Arg\u00fcello, then working to organize the Lower 24th Street Merchants and Neighbors Association, first visited L\u2019s, he was skeptical. \u201cFor us, it was like part of the gentrification, coffee shops can have that feel,\u201d he remembers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he soon saw that L\u2019s was different. \u201cWe were nicely surprised that it was very family oriented, speaking Spanish, welcoming everyone.\u201d And as L\u2019s Caff\u00e9 grew, so did its involvement in the community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As L\u2019s Caff\u00e9 grew, so did its involvement in the community. Not only did the Lozano sisters join the Lower 24th Street Merchants and Neighbors\u2019 Association, but L\u2019s became the epicenter for many of the strategic meetings that allowed the Association to grow and become the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District as we now know it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt became a place where the community held court,\u201d said Arg\u00fcello. \u201cWe would meet there with city officials, with DPW, and have large community meetings.\u201d There came a point when the Merchants and Neighbors Association was using the space so often \u201cthey would let us use the business that night, when they weren\u2019t there, so we built that trust, over time, to the point where we had keys at times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caffeine from L\u2019s has fueled 15 years worth of community and cultural organizing, hosting planning committees for events like Carnaval and the Cesar Chavez Parade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When David Campos announced he was running for District 9 Supervisor, he held his first party at L\u2019s and \u201cto this day continues to host meetings at least once a week\u201d there, according to Gabby. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many years it also functioned as a cultural hub, its walls acting as a community gallery, featuring the work of local artists working in acrylic, pastel and oil, \u201cand even quilts handmade by [residents of] the 30th Street Senior Center,\u201d remembers Gabby. \u201cIt was used as a live performance venue where grassroots cooperatives thrived,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After 15 years of sharing moments like these with their community, \u201cI think we are all entering a different stage in our lives,\u201d said Rosy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gabby has a rewarding job as the Business Liaison for the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, and her expertise in helping the community merchants keeps her in high demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lourdes and Rosy live in Oakley and Antioch, respectively, making it difficult to get to the coffee shop, and they both want to spend more time with their families. \u201cI didn\u2019t spend that much time with my kids for a long time,\u201d said Rosy, who was pregnant with her first child when they signed the lease for the cafe back in 2005. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For these reasons, earlier this year, the sisters made the difficult decision to sell the business. \u201cEverything in life has an end,\u201d said Rosy. \u201cWe had a good run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Family business<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially, the Lozano sisters worked with a real estate agency to find a new owner. \u201cThe people that were coming had all these ideas about making it into an expensive place…they wanted to change it completely,\u201d said Lourdes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sisters didn\u2019t like the idea of their space being taken up by a business that would further gentrify the corridor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019ve felt the impacts of gentrification,\u201d said Arg\u00fcello. \u201cThey\u2019ve seen their clientele flip…the early customers that were all there, after three or four years they all disappeared and there was a whole other crowd coming in…they were acutely aware of what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the sisters dropped the real estate agent and realized the ideal successor of L\u2019s Caff\u00e9 had been right in front of them all along: an employee named Santos Lopez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lopez was 20 years old when he left Yucat\u00e1n and arrived in the Mission, where he has lived since. That entire time he has worked in the restaurant industry, as do most of his relatives in San Francisco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When he started working at L\u2019s almost three years ago, the sisters noticed his drive and initiative. \u201cAs an employee, I never had to tell him what to do, he would show up and just start doing,\u201d said Lourdes. \u201cHe\u2019s always trying to improve things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day, Lourdes asked him if he had ever thought of opening his own business, and Lopez said he had. So Lourdes conferred with her sisters and they all agreed he was an ideal candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They made Lopez an offer and he took about a month to think it through. \u201cThere are some opportunities that, when they present themselves, take them, because you don\u2019t know if you\u2019ll get another one,\u201d said Lopez, who wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the words \u201cRisk Taker\u201d during our interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And since Santos, whose last name is Lopez, shares a last name initial with the Lozano sisters, he will be keeping the L\u2019s Caff\u00e9 name. \u201cIt was meant to be,\u201d said Rosy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During the last few months of 2019, the Lozano sisters helped Lopez with the transition from employee to business owner, and in January he became the official owner of L\u2019s Caff\u00e9.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Lopez hopes to give the place his personal touch, \u201cI don\u2019t want to mess with a place that is already made, it has its own customers, and that\u2019s plenty, I just want to add a few customers with some new things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that neighbors and customers are starting to hear the news that the Lozano sisters are leaving, \u201cThey come and they cry\u2026 and it\u2019s difficult for us because we love this place so much,\u201d said Lourdes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe put our souls and our hearts into what we did,\u201d said Rosy. \u201cGabby is very involved in the community and through her, we will continue being part of the culture and the whole Mission District \u2026 We\u2019re not going away \u2026 Gabby will be making sure of that,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSupport Santos, he\u2019s a great person,\u201d said Lourdes. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful for these 15 years we were here, it was a wonderful experience\u2026 We\u2019re sad, but also happy for having been here.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the Lozano sisters\u2014co-owners of L\u2019s Caff\u00e9, Gabby, Lourdes and Rosy\u2014were growing up in Mexico City, their mother ran a soda fountain. In the afternoons when the girls would get out from school, they would come and help their mother at the shop. \u201cWe wanted something like that, similar to what my mother had,\u201d remembers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":42826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[],"coauthors":[18445],"class_list":["post-42824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","post_format-post-format-gallery","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n