{"id":176482,"date":"2026-02-13T12:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/176482\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T12:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:22:11","slug":"binis-kitchen-holds-on-in-san-franciscos-soma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/176482\/","title":{"rendered":"Bini\u2019s Kitchen holds on in San Francisco’s SoMa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Comic<\/a><\/p>\n

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On a recent Thursday, shortly after opening at 11 a.m., Binita \u201cBini\u201d Pradhan and her sister, Sumita Giri, sit at tables meant for their customers. It\u2019s the lunch hour rush, but the tables will remain empty in their family-run restaurant, Bini\u2019s Kitchen on Sixth and Howard Streets.<\/p>\n

Years ago, Pradhan\u2019s food \u2014 home-style Nepalese dishes rooted in memories of her mother\u2019s cooking \u2014 earned her a spot in La Cocina\u2019s incubator<\/a>. She graduated, opened a pick-up window near Union Square that is still running, and in 2019 opened her SoMa sit-down restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be hustling and bustling. There were lines, so many people around,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Then the pandemic hit. The restaurant survived COVID-19, but the neighborhood never fully recovered, she said. Foot traffic dwindled. Poverty became more visible. Vandalism followed.<\/p>\n

In January, there were days the sisters didn\u2019t open at all because staff were afraid to come to work, and the front entrance was so heavily soiled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how long we can stay here,\u201d Pradhan said. She\u2019s made sure City Hall knows.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bini Pradhan, left, and Sumita Giri, right, are sisters who work together managing Bini\u2019s Kitchen in San Francisco. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

\"ABini\u2019s Kitchen features a wide array of menu items, including momos, eggplant, basmati rice and mango lassi in SoMa on Jan. 29, 2026. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get back on my feet every day and then try to come to work,\u201d Giri told supervisors at a City Hall meeting in January, where lawmakers advanced an ordinance to impose a corner-store curfew<\/a> in their South of Market neighborhood, in an effort to curb crime in West SoMa and parts of the Tenderloin. (Supervisors passed the ordinance in early February.)<\/p>\n

Pradhan is hopeful that will make a difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pradhan said she and her sister sometimes spend hours each day clearing people who appear to be suffering from addiction from the restaurant\u2019s entrance \u2014 and also cleaning what they believe to be human feces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ABini Pradhan, owner of Bini\u2019s Kitchen in SoMa, points to graffiti on her restaurant window on Jan. 29, 2026. Her restaurant has been the target of vandalism several times since opening in 2019. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

She gestures toward a series of soaring windows, one patched over with tape after an attempted break-in. \u201cThis window has been broken twice, and we are in a state where we cannot fix it anymore,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunlight illuminates an immaculate kitchen lined with a rainbow of spices imported from her native Nepal. Her employees prepare food behind a gleaming walnut counter designed pro bono, along with the rest of the space, by a local architecture firm<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pradhan and Giri want to stay, and they are hoping for a sea change in the neighborhood. But they don\u2019t know how much longer they can wait. Nowadays, Pradhan says walk-in customers are almost nonexistent some weeks, though they do steady business through online food-delivery platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Otherwise, Pradhan and Giri said they sustain the business through catering events elsewhere in the city, like festivals and markets. They know they can sell their food. They just can\u2019t bring customers in to enjoy the space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Sumita Giri describes the mural on the inside Bini\u2019s Kitchen on Jan. 29, 2026. She points to a painting of her and her sister, Bini Pradhan, depicted on the wall. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

\"PlatesThe display case at Bini\u2019s Kitchen features various types of momos, Nepali dumplings, which can be made with meat or vegetarian filling inside, topped with a tomato and cilantro sauce on Jan. 29, 2026. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

City data<\/a> suggests that SoMa has not regained its pre-pandemic restaurant momentum. According to the most recently available figures, openings peaked in 2019, then fell sharply between 2020 and 2023 and have yet to rebound. A total of 167 restaurants and bars closed between 2019 and 2023, mostly west of Fifth Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love this community. We love the landlord. We love our staff. They\u2019ve been with us for 12 years,\u201d Giri said. \u201cBut Bini and I haven\u2019t taken a salary this month because business has been so slow.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The toll isn\u2019t just financial. Pradhan and Giri said they often wake in the night to watch security camera footage, and can only fall back asleep when they\u2019re sure the restaurant is safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shelves once lined with Nepalese art now stand partially bare, due to petty theft, the sisters say. They no longer keep a tip jar. Once, a stranger barged into the restaurant and demanded to use the bathroom, grabbing Giri by the throat. The phone number for the San Francisco police stands etched on a whiteboard near the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dawa, a cook at Bini\u2019s Kitchen, stirs kwati, a Nepalese soup made with various types of beans, at the restaurant in SoMa on Jan. 29, 2026. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/p>\n

Pradhan doesn\u2019t claim to have easy answers for the conditions outside her door. She says she understands that people on the street are struggling, too. But she feels abandoned by a city she thought would protect small businesses like hers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though she said calls to her local supervisor, Matt Dorsey, have been met with a sympathetic ear, she and her sister wish the city offered more resources for cleaning and vandalism, to help supplement their skyrocketing insurance rates, and more frequent police patrols.<\/p>\n

\u201cI share their concerns,\u201d Dorsey said in an interview with Mission Local. \u201cThere are a lot of things the city has done poorly over several years, starting with an issue I\u2019ve been working on \u2014 police staffing.\u201d He said that a multi-layered strategy of business curfews<\/a>, higher police staffing<\/a> and a new sobering center<\/a> represent \u201chope on the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is doing nothing about small businesses like us. It\u2019s like they\u2019re forcing us to move from here and go somewhere else,\u201d Pradhan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For now, Pradhan and Giri keep showing up each morning, cooking food that carried them through hard years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was no hope, then we would have closed this place long back. We are still trying,\u201d Pradhan said, gesturing toward three empty storefronts framed in the restaurant\u2019s windows.<\/p>\n

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