Name: One Chef’s Post-Layoff Pivot Is Delivering Arepas by Bicycle All Over San Francisco
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One Chef’s Post-Layoff Pivot Is Delivering Arepas by Bicycle All Over San Francisco

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Filed under:Arepas en Bici is bringing homemade Venezuelan food straight to customers’ doorstepsVictor Aguilera has been a professional cook for the last 14 years, but even though he’s been making arepas since he was four years old, he’s never had a job cooking the food of his native Venezuela. Then, the coronavirus crisis hit San Francisco, and, like thousands of other restaurant workers around the city, Aguilera was laid off — in his case, from his job as the kitchen manager at , which at the beginning of the shelter in place.What’s a laid-off chef to do, then, with no income and no immediate prospects for employment? For Aguilera, it was the perfect time to go all-in on Venezuelan food: A couple of weeks ago, he launched , a new business wherein the chef makes arepas and other Venezuelan dishes at his Nob Hill apartment, then delivers them all over the city by bicycle. “The only thing I can actually do right now is something I’ve been wanting to do my whole life,” Aguilera says.The centerpiece of is the arepa, the stuffed griddled corn cake that’s ubiquitous in Venezuela. Aguilera sells seven different versions — basically all of the most traditional fillings, he tells Eater SF. There’s a version filled with shredded steak, black beans, and plantains; there’s a classic reina pepiada, in which he mixes shredded chicken with diced avocado and an avocado aioli. He also sells Venezuelan-style empanadas (the deep-fried kind with a masa shell) and tequeños, the pastry-wrapped Venezuelan cheese sticks.Customers can text orders to 415-660-0303 — a day in advance if they want their arepas delivered in the early morning; otherwise, he’s open for takeout (again, just at his home) and doing delivery runs between noon and 6 p.m. daily. And, in an effort to give back to the community, he says anyone who’s hungry and can’t afford to buy a meal can just text him, and he’ll drop off a few plain arepas for free.During a time when the whole city is desperate for interesting new takeout and delivery options, Arepas en Bici is a welcome addition to the scene on a number of levels. San Francisco has very few existing Venezuelan restaurants (apart from , in the Mission). And for diners who have grown and their high commission fees, a one-man arepa bike operation holds real appeal: They can rest easy that their money is all going to support the business itself.After all, Arepas en Bici is a one-man show at this point in time. Aguilera does all the shopping and food prep; he’s the one who hops onto his bike to drop the food off at your doorstep. In the two weeks since he launched the business, he says he’s routinely stayed up until 2 or 3 a.m. prepping orders for the next morning — because, for instance, a customer put in an order of 50 tequeños.The bike delivery aspect has allowed Aguilera to combine two of his passions: He’s an avid cyclist who played competitive for a number of years; years ago, when he was in Orlando, Florida, one of his early food jobs was as a bike delivery guy for the Jimmy John’s fast food chain. For Arepas en Bici, the chef says he’ll deliver within a seven-mile radius, essentially covering the entire city, all the way out to the Outer Sunset.The venture was, of course, born in part out of desperation after he lost his restaurant job last month. Aguilar says he’s filed for unemployment, but hasn’t gotten any money yet — every week, he says, he’s just told that he has to send in his paperwork again. Given that Arepas en Bici is just run out of his home kitchen, it clearly isn’t yet an officially sanctioned business. Aguilar says he plans to get all that squared away once the coronavirus crisis has ended. But if the business continues to grow, he doesn’t plan to go back to cooking at someone else’s restaurant after the shelter in place lifts. Instead, he says, he’d love to expand into a full-fledged catering operation and, perhaps, eventually open up a Venezuelan restaurant of his own.on Apr 19, 2020 at 11:28pm PDTSign up for our newsletter.The freshest news from the local food world

Filed under:Arepas en Bici is bringing homemade Venezuelan food straight to customers’ doorstepsVictor Aguilera has been a professional cook for the last 14 years, but even though he’s been making arepas since he was four years old, he’s never had a job cooking the food of his native Venezuela. Then, the coronavirus crisis hit San Francisco, and, like thousands of other restaurant workers around the city, Aguilera was laid off — in his case, from his job as the kitchen manager at , which at the beginning of the shelter in place.What’s a laid-off chef to do, then, with no income and no...

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One Chef’s Post-Layoff Pivot Is Delivering Arepas by Bicycle All Over San Francisco

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