San Francisco’s Tamale Lady Launches Campaign For Brick-and-Mortar
The famed “Tamale Lady,” who has been selling her wares in San Francisco’s Mission District for years, is now launching a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign to set up a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
60-year-old Virginia Ramos has been in the news recently, after being forced to stop selling her tamales at Zeitgeist. City officials said because of health codes, she would not be able to sell at the popular Mission bar – or other establishments in the city.
But with the help of San Francisco Supervisor David Campos, whose district includes the Mission, she is now looking to raise $155,000 to open her own restaurant, where she can sell her famed tamales.
Campos said after the San Francisco Department of Public Health shut her operation down earlier this month, he received hundreds of calls and emails from concerned constituents.
Ramos has said part of her sadness was not being able to interact with the people she has become so familiar with, after serving tamales to bar patrons for more than 20 years.
If her campaign raises enough money by August 26, $5,000 would go to the Indiegogo website where she is running her campaign, while the rest would combine with money she’s saved over the years. If she raises more than the total, Campos said the additional money would go to the Jamestown Community Center, which provides after school and summer programs for youth in the Mission District.
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