Pioneering trans-owned Fluid Cooperative Cafe opens in La Cocina’s Municipal Marketplace - SF Gate

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But for many trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals, a far more mundane activity can be nearly as contentious: ordering a simple cup of coffee. There’s scarcely a trans woman in America who hasn’t been confronted by the innocuous-sounding greeting, “How may I help you, sir?” by a customer-facing employee at least once. (Swap in “ma’am” for most trans men.) Then, if your chosen name doesn’t match the cashier’s idea of your gender identity, you may get an awkward stare along with your macchiato.

Enter Fluid Cooperative Cafe, opening Monday morning in La Cocina Municipal Marketplace in the Tenderloin. A project by a trio of trans San Franciscans — Shannon Amitin, Santana Tapia and JoJo Ty — with plenty of nightlife experience among them, it’s intended to be a welcoming space in keeping with La Cocina’s efforts to empower marginalized communities.

“By us, but for all” is Fluid’s governing principle. When its three principals open the proverbial door — clad in pink, white, and baby-blue aprons representing the colors of the Trans Pride flag — they will be the newest tenant in a food hall that soft-opened several months ago, with the mission of bringing accessible, delicious food to an underserved neighborhood every weekday from 11 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. (Fluid will open at 8 a.m.)

“We want to make sure that we’re representing within the space,” Shannon, who typically uses only their first name, says of the aprons. “So I think that’s a good visual cue to know that there are trans folks in the house.” (Disclosure: We are former colleagues at San Francisco Pride.)

“La Cocina doesn’t specifically brand themselves as queer or LGBTQ+, so we hope with our partnership, we can connect with other communities and say, ‘Hey this is us, we’d like to get to know you all and share this space with you,’” says Ty, who grew up in the Excelsior and cut his teeth in the food industry at a Smitten Ice Cream in Pacific Heights. “We don’t want people accidentally misgendering our customers with ‘Hello, sir.’ Every TGNC person has experienced that.”

Queerness in coffee is undoubtedly having a moment. Sprudge, the industry’s trade publication, recently profiled a number of trans and gender nonconforming leaders in coffee, including Cheyenne Xochítl Love of Queer Wave Roasters, from which Fluid sources some its beans. And just before Pride weekend, the queer-owned cafe Milk SF — unrelated to NYC-based dessert purveyor Milk Bar — hung out its shingle on Valencia Street next to the LGBTQ-friendly Glama-Rama salon. 

But Fluid is symbolically important in other ways. For starters, it’s a cooperative endeavor, without the traditional capitalist hierarchy. Decisions are made via consensus or near-consensus. Since there are only three people to start, that necessarily means a two-thirds decision. But as the co-op grows, Fluid will use a formula that gradually brings decision-making closer to a seven-eighths majority requirement, reviewed weekly and with full transparency. This is a marked difference from those 8,000-square-foot temples, with their deep-pocketed investors and pricey cuppings, which have characterized so many Third Wave operations.

Fluid’s location — in a former post office on Hyde Street and Golden Gate Avenue — may be just as significant. For more than half a century, the Tenderloin has been recognized as the home of a significant trans population, although that “recognition” may have been at the receiving end of a police baton. Since its inception in 2017, the Transgender District has made enormous gains, elevating the profile of its unique trans history, and working to secure housing for trans women of color and other marginalized populations. (Although the co-op lies just outside its footprint, the district provided Fluid with a seed grant.) 

In spite of its trans population, the Tenderloin has generally lacked trans-owned businesses. So Fluid hopes to be a pioneer in that regard.

Food and social-justice activist Vinny Eng, left, poses with the Fluid team, second left to right, Shannon Amitin, Santana Tapia, and JoJo Ty.

Courtesy Fluid Cooperative Cafe

“It’s important for folks to come down and see you working,” Shannon says, as someone from an unrelated La Cocina project passes bottles of a tamarind-flavored probiotic drink to our table. “It personalizes it and shows that this is a project worth investing in.”

People can still do that, through GiveButter or via a forthcoming Patreon. Basic levels of support get you the standard mugs and T-shirts, but the team is hoping to snag a deep-pocketed donor or two with promises of access to special events. This is where Tapia, a well-known drag performer and a face of BART’s “Not One More Girl” anti-harassment campaign, comes in. Fluid’s engagement will begin with an open mic and gradually develop from there.

“There’s talk of a drag brunch, so who knows?” Tapia says, pointing to the Marketplace’s small stage. “An affordable, accessible drag brunch.”

The term “community” has been beaten to death from overuse, but in the context of LGBTQ+ culture, it is all too often synonymous with nightlife. Tapia, although herself a nightlife pro, wants that to change.

Trans people “need somewhere to go that’s not a bar,” she says, adding that she’s excited for people to connect over a variation of the cafe de olla that her grandmother made her. “I remember talking to my grandma about those precious moments that we shared over coffee and that made me excited to build this. Every part of Mexico has a different recipe. My family is from Guadalajara but we lived in Tijuana, and access to all the ingredients wasn’t possible, so we made do and made new traditions and new recipes. That kind of relates to the culture of the Tenderloin: underserved, but we still make beauty here.”

While the full menu and its specialty beverages have yet to be finalized, Shannon notes that Fluid is working with three queer- or trans-owned coffee roasteries: Equator, Oakland’s Queer Wave, and Maquina, out of Pennsylvania. Affordability is paramount, given the Tenderloin’s demographics and La Cocina’s focus on accessibility. Still, all three Fluid members know that no matter how low the prices may be, some will grumble.

“We may not know everything, but we’re here to listen to best serve what the community needs, not just assume what they need,” Ty says. “We’re just passing the torch that our trans-cestors gave us to future generations.”

In doing so, they prepared an inclusivity workshop on Friday to help educate workers from La Cocina Marketplace’s other stalls on gender and sexuality issues. Some of those vendors, like Estrellita’s Snacks and Los Cilantros, may already be familiar to Bay Area foodies, as is the not-yet-opened stall selling Nepalese dumplings, from Bini’s Kitchen. That education can run both ways.

“Hey, Nepalese doesn’t have gendered pronouns!” Tapia says.

Fluid Cooperative Cafe, located inside La Cocina Marketplace at 101 Hyde St. in San Francisco, is open starting Monday, Aug. 2. The hours of operation are Monday - Friday, 8-a.m.-2:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, closed.

Peter-Astrid Kane (they/them) is the communications manager for San Francisco Pride and a former editor of SF Weekly.

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