Dontaye Ball cooks shrimp on a flattop grill at his Bayview restaurant. He is taking over a café in the basement of San Francisco’s City Hall.
Stephen Lam/The Chronicle
Two years ago, chef Dontaye Ball of Gumbo Social got on the elevator at San Francisco City Hall, and Aaron Peskin, at the time the president of the Board of Supervisors, asked someone to hit the button “G.” According to Ball, people in the elevator asked, “What’s G? Don’t you mean the basement?” Peskin quipped: “No! G is for gumbo, baby!”
Ball’s gumbo has been enticing people to the basement of City Hall since Café Mélange opened there in 2024, but now he’s taking over ownership of the business, which will reopen on March 18. He’s not planning any major changes, but it marks the next iteration for this under-the-radar café, hidden inside the elegant Beaux-Arts building, which has become a hangout for City Hall insiders.
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Originally, Café Mélange was part of a shared project created by the New Community Leadership Foundation, a San Francisco organization dedicated to supporting small businesses in historically marginalized neighborhoods. Five Black-owned businesses from the Bayview revived the vacant basement space: Customers could get gumbo from Gumbo Social, jambalaya from Radio Africa & Kitchen, pecan pie from Yvonne’s Southern Sweets, banana pudding from Yes Pudding or ginger brew from Tallios Coffee. Unfortunately, Ball said, while the project had great intentions, many of the other businesses eventually dropped out.
But Ball and his gumbo are here to stay. While Gumbo Social feels like a neighborhood gathering place, Café Mélange is a fast-paced counter feeding folks getting married or filing paperwork, as well as elected officials and city staffers. “We really have the opportunity to serve the people who are serving the city,” Ball said.
Chicken sausage gumbo from Gumbo Social, whose owner Dontaye Ball has taken over a café in the basement of San Francisco City Hall.
Stephen Lam/The Chronicle
Café Mélange will continue serving bowls of his popular gumbo, filled with chicken and sausage, eight-hour smoked turkey or pork belly with hot links, as well as one veggie option brimming with black-eyed peas. Ball was born and raised in the Bayview, but he inherited his love of gumbo from his grandmother, who grew up on a farm in Mississippi. He believes in deep dark roux and sauces thickened with okra, and simmering stocks and smoking proteins for hours, while also folding in California twists and toppings. Ball built a loyal following selling gumbo at the Outer Sunset Farmers Market before opening his first restaurant in 2023.
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Beyond gumbo, Café Mélange serves salads, soups and sandwiches, like the best-seller that stacks turkey, bacon and havarti with a swipe of garlic aioli. There’s a gingery miso chicken salad with shredded cabbage, carrots and herbs from the Heart of the City Farmers Market, although according to Ball, Assessor-Recorder Joaquín Torres often goes for the old-school Cobb. Supervisor Matt Dorsey grabs a blueberry scone, while Supervisor Bilal Mahmood swings by for a chocolate cookie. Sheriff Paul Miyamoto orders the most coffee, running on drip and espresso from Mr. Espresso.
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While it’s become a fixture within City Hall, Café Mélange is tucked away from the outside world. No signs advertise its existence on the street. Entering through the ornate bronze entrance on Van Ness Avenue, you’ll pass through the metal detectors and circle around the grand marble staircase where brides pose for photos. Down a different set of stairs is the cozy café with pastel blue walls and sage green tiles, and a few seats for coffee and lunch meetings. Ball plans to put up collages from local photographer Tonie Brock, repping food, music and culture from the Bayview.
Ball adds shrimp-infused butter to a pan of blue crab meat while cooking in the Bayview.
Stephen Lam/The Chronicle
In the spirit of the original shared project, Ball hopes to collaborate with other restaurants. Minnie Bell’s will be popping up soon with fried chicken sandwiches; Peaches Patties and Let’s Eat BBQ will also make appearances; and he’s hoping to convince the owners of Rize Up Sourdough, Al Pastor Papi and Outta Sight Pizza to join. And one of the original café’s vendors is still here, though in a different capacity: Quanisha Johnson of Yes Pudding is staying on as manager at Café Mélange.
Director of Community Affairs Ernest “EJ” Jones worked in City Hall before, during and after the pandemic, and he missed the basement coffee when the café went dark for several years. He’s also a fan of what Ball is doing in the Bayview, championing community and culture by hosting a Mardi Gras stroll and other events at Gumbo Social. When Café Mélange opened, “I was really excited to not only have food back in the building, but for it to be someone from the community and neighborhoods,” Jones said. “Bringing that flavor here is really important.”
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These days, he runs downstairs to the café three to five times a week — usually for coffee and occasionally a chicken pesto wrap. Even on the most chaotic day at the office, “Having a warm bowl of gumbo can be really good, just to slow down your day, when everything around you is moving at 100 miles per hour.”