All Good Pizza, Where Food And Community Meet

Kristin Houk has been in the food business for as long as she can remember, and has always wanted to one day open her own place, in her own neighborhood.  All Good Pizza has given Houk and her husband Matt that very opportunity in Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco.

“I’ve lived in this community for 12 years and there has always been limited access to healthy food here.  We had a grocery store for awhile [with Fresh & Easy], but that only lasted a year or two,” Houk.  “I originally wanted to park a food truck in a different empty lot in the area, but we settled on this location.  After tons of clean-up, I think we’ve given the community a space where they can gather and feel safe.”

Houk has taken a hyper-local approach with All Good Pizza.  Flora Grubb Gardens is right across the street, and a lot of the plants used in the clean-up process came directly from them.  Ingredients for the pizzas and other dishes are all local - not just local to San Francisco or the Bay Area, but local to Bayview Hunters Point.  The sausage and meats come from Evergood Fine Foods, a business that has resided in BVHP for decades.  Produce comes from Veritable Vegetable and bread from Crepe and Brioche.  “We really wanted to highlight the talents of some of the smaller businesses in this community,” Houk said.

Across the street sits a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell.  There’s a Pizza Hut in the neighborhood.  But as Houk notes, there were no places serving really good pizza in the Bayview.  The pizza is "fresh and simple,” something she learned while spending time in Italy.  The thin crust, Neapolitan-style pizzas come with different toppings, depending on the season.  Other offerings include a kale salad, which Houk said is one of the most popular dishes, and several varieties of panini.  Houk has told customers that if they don’t like something, they don’t have to pay for it.  In two years, she has never had to return a customer’s money.  “There was some skepticism to some of the menu items and what we were serving.  I think it was people being unfamiliar with an ingredient, not knowing how something might taste,” she said.  “But we’ve been welcomed.  People from all sectors congregate here.  We’ve hosted a lot of community events.  We really have a deep belief in our food and the products we are using.”  

Houk sees changes coming for the neighborhood.  She said she welcomes new restaurants, because it provides different options and gets more people out in the community.  “People in the community are excited for new options, places where they can dine out.  And we really want to keep the money within the community - rather than going to another part of town, we want to be able to go out to dinner in Bayview Hunters Point.  This is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco, but the lack of diversity in dining options really hurts.  We need more choices.”  In terms of a longview for BVHP, Houk said she thinks the current housing crisis will soon make its way to Bayview Hunters Point, and is concerned about gentrification, and longtime residents being forced out. 

“Bayview is really an amazing community.  The weather here is better than any other part of the city.  This neighborhood also includes the highest percentage of home ownership, where some families have lived from generation to generation,” Houk said.  She said while bringing in other businesses is an integral part of building BVHP, the one “pinnacle piece” is a grocery store, which would finally allow fresh produce options to be close-at-hand.

All Good Pizza is located at 1605 Jerrold Avenue.

On Wednesday, a look at a winemaker, who produces bottles and bottles of vino out of her Bayview garage.