Baobab History

Roughly a decade ago in San Francisco, with his friend Ludo who now owns the Tunnel Top Bar, Marco hit upon the idea to make and distribute his Sénégalese homemade version of the ginger root elixir—refreshingly good tasting and salubrious in many respects.

Unlike the bitter strong and bubbly ginger beers I tasted as a young teenager at Elbow beach in the Bermuda Islands, or the pungent throat scorching ginger infused Chai concoction brewed by my Indian friend Jayanti, Marco’s Mr. Good Ginger drink is remarkably smooth and sweetly gentle and radiates warmth and leaves me glowing as it goes down.

It did not take his suppliers long to discover the popularity of Marco and his brew.  And before he knew it Marco was brewing day and night to meet his self-marketed 85 distributors' demand for a weekly order of 1,500 bottles.  Night and day, brewing, bottling and labeling by hand—no mass mechanical production here, but a labor of love!  After years of meeting demand, and ultimately, when his apartment kitchen ceiling collapsed from the saturation and weight of the always brewing and condensing ginger fumes, total exhaustion set in and Marco briefly shut down.

After a little rest in Paris Marco returned, and irony of all ironies, he was inspired by a vision of the mythological import of the Baobab archetype.  An uplifting community based restaurant in the tradition of the wise ones of Senegal right here in the Mission.  ‘Pour quoi pas?’  ‘Why not?’ Marco thought.

I was amazed and confused when Marco mentioned this to me.  "Let me get this straight" in bewilderment I asked my friend, "You are exhausted from making juice and now you are opening a restaurant?"

‘Bien sur!’ but of course he answers, and the logic is overwhelming.  When he was making Mr. Good Ginger it was a one man show, he was brewing, bottling, and labeling then supplying the North Bay. Then brewing, bottling, and labeling then supplying the East Bay. Then brewing, bottling, and labeling then supplying the South Bay, all the way down to Santa Cruz, which could never get enough of his Mr. Good Ginger.  You get the idea…exhausting!

But how could a restaurant be easier I protested.  ‘Ah!’ Marco interjects with that typical Parisian sonorous twang and confident big smile!  "Now I am announcing and bringing my clients to me, instead of chasing them all over the Bay!"  He smiles coyly, "For sure it's a fuller and bigger course, but now I have help.  Genuine help!  Good friends who are not into it just for the money.  And we embody the spirit of the Terranga, hospitality!"  And little by little two Baobabs—the Bissap Baobab & the Little Baobab—have now sprouted and are maturing in the warm sunny Mission District of San Francisco under the hospitable eye of Marco.