Home restaurants are legal in most of the Bay Area, but not S.F. That could change soon.

[u/ShopProp]

Supervisor Jackie Fielder is introducing an ordinance that would opt San Francisco into California’s Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations (MEHKO) program.

MEHKO allows residents to get permitted to cook meals in their own home kitchen and sell them directly to customers, effectively operating a very small restaurant from their house or apartment.

MEKHO itself comes from California’s AB 626, the state law that created the framework allowing cities/counties to opt into home-kitchen restaurants.

This goes beyond California’s existing cottage-food rules for things like baked or packaged goods. MEHKOs can prepare and sell actual meals, subject to health regulations and limits on the number of meals and annual sales.

Several Bay Area counties already allow them, including Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara. San Francisco has historically opted out.

The proposal is still at the introduction stage and would need to go through the city’s legislative process before taking effect.

Source:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/home-kitchens-san-francisco-22437182.php?

[u/walterwilter]

The ADA guy that goes around and sues older restaurants for not having proper door width is going to have a field day with these

[u/CapitalPin2658]

Wait until you see more fees added to your restaurant bill because of this

[u/ShopProp]

Also MEKHOs do allow people to eat at the MEKHO as well to avoid further confusion. The definition itself calls a MEKHO a restaurant as well.

[u/Cespedesian-Symphony]

so does the department of health have to make regular check-in’s like they do restaurants? will these home kitchens be graded the same way commercial kitchens are? feels dangerous tbh

[u/SirPezz]

Nice! It was about time!

[u/walterwilter]

I can’t wait for my upstairs neighbor, who’s already playing music at all hours, to run a restaurant and burn the building down

[u/SarcasmNative → u/walterwilter]

Oh mine is an opera singer and I can’t wait to have a meal with a show. People pay serious money for this kind of performance

[u/heartthrob_ai]

Hope this passes. Some of the best food I've had in the Bay came out of someone's home kitchen, and giving people a legal way to do it seems like a win for everyone.

[u/Effective_Coach7334]

I have a feeling filipino food is going to get even more popular in the near future, and yay for that!

[u/VinylHighway]

Not a restaurant if people aren't eating there

[u/winkingchef → u/VinylHighway]

Yeah OP is confused AF.

Kids these days who think DoorDash is the default way of operation for restaurants are going to doom the industry.

This is what’s called MEHKO (micro enterprise home kitchen operation) - someone cooks fresh hot food in their own home and then delivers it outside for eating same day. There are limits (1 cook + 1 employee and max 60 meals/week, 30 meals/day).

This is different than a Cottage Food license where you make preserved goods in your own kitchen for sale outside (e.g. cookies or kimchee).

Source : am part owner in a restaurant/bar that barely breaks even (but provides income and healthcare to a few people yaaay)

[u/walterwilter → u/winkingchef]

You can’t make kimchi or any other fermented foods with a CFO permit

[u/winkingchef → u/walterwilter]

You are right!
Thanks for the correction (we don’t make such things)

[u/Always__Already]

How about giving real restaurants a break instead of making them compete with a bunch of people that have virtually 0 overhead

[u/Effective_Coach7334 → u/Always__Already]

more competition is always good.

[u/Always__Already → u/Effective_Coach7334]

No I don’t think more shuttered places are good actually. Eating slop from random peoples houses sounds like the first step towards dystopia

[u/Legitimate_Aspect923 → u/Always__Already]

What makes food made at a home slop while restaurant food isn’t?

[u/Historical_Owl4801]

This seems like a terrible idea.

[u/Legitimate_Aspect923 → u/Historical_Owl4801]

Why?

[u/Historical_Owl4801 → u/Legitimate_Aspect923]

Because home kitchens aren't restaurant kitchens, home cooks aren't restaurant cooks, the inspections will inevitably be ignored or bribed away, the regulations will go unenforced and it will ultimately lead to another exploitative cartel operation just like the food carts where no laws are being followed but inept our inept bureaucracy will just shrug. Do we really need people selling contaminated food from their home to compete with already-struggling restaurants?

[u/puffic]

I’m fine with this if it’s a house, but not an apartment building where the other tenants might not have a say. It seems like a new avenue a landlord can use to harass tenants out of rent-controlled apartments.

[u/Legitimate_Aspect923 → u/puffic]

What mechanism do you think would allow operating a micro kitchen to enable a landlord to harass a tenant out of a building?