“One night she and her children packed up their things and left him...”
Irma’s Pampanga Restaurant
Justice Served
Article and photos by Wilma B. Consul
It’s past noon and the sun shines intensely in the Mission District one of the toughest and most feared neighborhoods in San Francisco. Several derelicts roam the corner of 18th and Mission Streets, but journalists, community organizers, artists, business people and plain folk, come from all over the city anyway to satisfy their hunger pangs in this seedy part of town. The object of culinary intent is Irma’s Pampanga Restaurant.
For a cost loss than the hourly mini mum wage, one can scarf up sinigang (sour soup) or nilaga (meat boil), apritada (stew) or kare-kare (oxtail peanut stew), pinakbet (sautéed vegetables with shrimp paste) or fried tilapia (fish) and of course, steamed rice with no extra charge for seconds, even thirds. A dollar can satiate one's sweet tooth with two turons with langka (fried wrapped banana with jackfruit). Add fifty more cents and novege tarian can resist the gooey goodness of ginatan (sweet potatoes and bananas in coconut milk).
The scene is so urban Manila, people can't help but reminisce about eating lugaw (rice gruel) at a greasy spoon) in Quiapo or palabok (noodles) at a turo-turo (literally, point—point" at what you want) in Libertad among the suki (regulars) — the jeepney and tricycle drivers.
“Turu-turo is what I can afford. You have to start from the bottom, dear,” says Irma Bautista, the 33-year-old owner who put her business in a location that patrons adore during the day for its affordable ethnic restaurants, open markets and thrift stores, but fear at night for its violent reputation.
Bautista is not a novice in the food business. She owned a restaurant back in her hometown in Guagua, Pampanga, just like the one she has now except smaller. Pampangeños are also known for being great cooks and are famous for their menudo (pork and liver sauté), longganisa (sausages), tocino (cured meat) and barbecue. So there's no doubt why Irma remains strong while other eating establishments on her block have either closed or changed owners in the past year. Besides, Bautista knows what it's like to rise from the deepest bottom.
She came to the United States in 1989 with her two children. She had been separated from her husband, who abused her for many years. He was able to come here and live with Bautista and their children. He abused her again.
One night in 1990, she and her children packed up their things and left him. She had nowhere to go but a homeless shelter for battered women. She lived there for two months until she was able to support herself.
She attended a support group at the Bay Area Women's Resource Center and took classes with WISE (Women's Initiative for Self Employment). In her finance training class, she wrote a business plan, which won her loans from WISE and the City Mayors Office. With such loans, plus her savings, she was able to take over the Filipino restaurant Alido's and change it to Irma’s Pampanga Restaurant.
Just a month after her opening on November 1991, Bautista’s estranged husband found out where she lived. He stabbed her and her mother. He tried to hurt the children. but luckily, he did not succeed. Bautista and her mother fortunately didn't die, but Bautista still goes through physical therapy for her right arm with damaged tendons. Her husband was arrested and is still serving indefinite time in prison after pleading incompetence to stand trial. She refers to that tragedy as an 'accident.'
The media's coverage of her plight as a battered woman who has successfully recovered from a destructive situation has not only brought the issue of domestic violence into the community, but also brought customers to Irma’s.
“I think some people come here out of sympathy for the first time," Bautista realizes. "But to come here for the third time? They come here because of the food. They like it."
Proof of this delectable reputation is Bautista’s new contract cooking for a senior center serving lunch daily to 50-70 Filipino elders located several blocks from Irma’s.
It's around 3:30 p.m. and the hectic lunch hour is over. Her kind helpers are now preparing for next day's business. She sits across the Sto. Niño stationed on a high shelf, conveniently placed to look over customers seated on a two foot stools in front of a bar-like rectangular table.
“That's for luck and protection, Bautista says with a serene smile, her lips and eyes point to the sacred child.
Irma's patrons are mostly Filipino, but many Cubans and other Latinos come to this humble place to get a taste of the food similar to — and as good as — theirs.
When closing time comes at six o'clock, she doesn’t shut the door to the late corners. Then, she will go home and tend to her two children. In the morning when the sun rises on a new day, Irma Bautista takes another step to a better fix future.
Irma’s Pampanga Restaurant
2186 Mission Street at 18th
San Francisco, Ca
415.626.8027
This article originally appeared in Filipinas Magazine.
Read about the writer, Wilma B. Consul.
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
----Eleanor Roosevelt
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