It's not like Brokeass Cooks, a popular new food pop-up in West Oakland, never thought they'd get shut down. After all, they knew selling family-style jerk chicken dinners out of their backyard wasn't technically legal in Alameda County. They just wish the health department would have had the guts to shut them down in person.
"It was almost a slap in the face," said Bilal Ali, one of the three out-of-work cooks who makes up Brokeass Cooks. "I’d rather have them shut us down to our face, than just a notice to our landlord. That's cowardly, c'mon."
On Wednesday morning, the trio, who are also housemates, received a call from their landlord asking for them to halt pop-up operations after being contacted by the Alameda County Public Health Department. Shortly thereafter, the chefs made the announcement to their thousands of Instagram followers, who immediately bombarded them with messages of support.
"Our message box is super flooded right now," said Hoang Le, another member of Brokeass Cooks. "A lot of people are offering us spaces to operate out of, and some people are saying to start a GoFundMe. We really don't know what to do at the moment, so we're going to spend this whole week figuring it out."
Brokeass Cooks isn't sure who ratted them out, although they haven't exactly been keeping their operation a secret and have spoken openly with media outlets. But they're not the only East Bay pop-up to get shut down lately. About two weeks ago, Chef Mona Leena Michael, who sold mana’eesh flatbreads and other Palestinian snacks on a sidewalk in Emeryville, received a visit from a health department official and two cops telling her to cease operations. She had been reported by a neighbor.
After learning that Brokeass Cooks had met a similar fate, Michael shared her thoughts about the Alameda County Health Department in a 5-minute-long video on Instagram. She said that right after being shut down, she applied for permits to legalize her operation, but had yet to hear anything back.
"Brokeass Cooks and I probably have cleaner home kitchens than half of the rat-infested Oakland establishments you guys let operate. How about instead of worrying about us and shutting us down, you go focus us on those routine inspections you’re a year, two, three years behind on?" she said. "... More importantly though, what are you going to do for cooks like me and cooks like Brokeass Cooks? What are you going to do for us? Our restaurants are closed, we're out of work and we're expected to live off of $300 a week in the Bay Area" (she is referring to President Donald Trump's recent $300-a-week unemployment boost).
Despite these recent crackdowns, Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan said that enforcement hasn't been the county's main focus lately.
"We should make sure that the food is safe, but no, I don’t think that [enforcement] has been a huge priority," she said.
With many restaurant workers having lost their jobs due to the pandemic, an influx of home-cooking operations have popped up in the Bay Area over the past few months. Some members of the local food community have been outspoken about the need to legalize these pop-ups, particularly through the adoption of AB-626 — a law passed state-wide in California in 2018 that allows small-scale home food operations to apply for permits.
However, each county in the state has to individually adopt the law for it to take effect. AB-626 has stalled for months in Alameda County, as well as pretty much everywhere else — only Riverside County has fully legalized it so far. That said, Alameda County seems to finally be mobilizing after months of putting the law on the backburner due to the pandemic. Supervisor Chan told SFGATE that she expects the Board of Supervisors to schedule a hearing about adopting the law in the next few weeks, and hopes to have passed it by early or mid-October.
Still, left in limbo for now, this leaves pop-ups like Brokeass Cooks forced to constantly look over their shoulders as they continue to work to keep a roof over their heads the only way they know how.
"Having in the back of our minds that we could just get shut down any time. ... That would be really nice to not have that hanging over our heads," said Ali back in mid-August.
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Getting shut down definitely throws a wrench in the trajectory of Brokeass Cooks' quickly-growing business (they recently debuted a new Peruvian menu, and said they were considering a vegetarian meal next), but they don't regret speaking out.
"We have no regrets in a sense, because what's going on right now is everywhere, everyone is doing this [pop-ups]," said Le. "A lot of people are laying low, but I think we don't want to be quiet about it ... With how much we've blown up, we've got this platform now to really shed light on the situation ... I feel like a lot of people are getting spread thin with all the different issues, whether it's weather or politics or racism, but the food industry also has their own issues we want to shed light on."
For now, Brokeass Cooks refunded all the customers who had placed orders for this week, and are looking into how to legitimize their operation without compromising their low prices for family-style meals. At this point, there's only one thing they know for sure: this is not the end.
"We will be back," said Keone Koki, the third member of the trio. "Brokeass Cooks will rise again."
Madeline Wells is an SFGATE reporter. Email: madeline.wells@sfgate.com | Twitter: @madwells22
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