Bissap Baobab SF
Live music venue · Mission
2243 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Highlights
Senegalese food, exotic cocktails, and world music with dancing
Senegalese food, exotic cocktails, and world music with dancing
"I met Marco Senghor, proprietor of Bissap Baobab, an 18-year-old West African/Senegalese restaurant and club in the Mission, and learned that he arrived in San Francisco in 1989 as Marc Olivier Senghor—the grandson of Léopold Senghor—and adopted the nickname Marco to create an independent identity. He settled in the Mission, discovered familiar ingredients like tamarind and hibiscus, found a welcoming, diverse community, and even moved into an abandoned building on 19th Street between Mission and Capp that temporarily served as his home and later became Little Baobab." - Eater Staff
"Bissap Baobab is a Senegalese restaurant in the Mission that has persevered through a lot of adversity within the past two years. In 2019, the owner, Marco, was arrested based on some unfounded claims about his immigration status. And he basically had his restaurant shut down for almost the whole year. He also lost the club, which was attached to the restaurant, due to these fallacious claims laid against him. Baobab was such a huge melting pot of West African culture in San Francisco. When I first moved here from Lagos in 2016, I was always at Baobab, because they would play Senegalese music, Nigerian music, Ghanian music - and it just felt like home away from home. And so it was so heartbreaking to see him go through that. But he was able to come back. Now he only owns 40% of the space he owned before - he had to sell off the rest of it to be able to pay his legal fees due to that battle. But he’s back and he’s doing takeout and delivery and also working on the nonprofit program which I’m working on as well, the SF New Deal. And the food is amazing. Try the chicken yassa - they’ll do it with fried plantains as well, which is delicious. I love anything with fried plantains." - simileoluwa adebajo 1
"Big Baobab, formerly known as Little Baobab, is a Senegalese restaurant that was upgraded by its owner, Marco Senghor, last August." - Paolo Bicchieri
"The new event will have a mix of food and drink vendors, including Bissap Baobab." - Dianne de Guzman
"Bissap Baobab, also known as 'Big Baobab,' is a pan-African restaurant and nightclub owned by Marco Senghor. The venue has faced numerous noise complaints from neighbors, which have disrupted its operations, including efforts to secure liquor licenses. Despite these challenges, Senghor continues to operate the restaurant and nightclub, hosting events and community gatherings." - Tamerra Griffin
