When you enter Tato, a taqueria in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco, a giant mural with a Day of the Dead-esque blue heron skull and the words “Hecho en Bayview” is painted on the left wall. It’s a riff on the official eagle-emblazoned “Hecho en Mexico” trademark that the Mexican government has been using since 1978 to identify Mexican-made products. The emblem has come to represent pride for Mexican identity.

At Tato, the mural represents pride and identity too — in the food, its backstory and the community of the Bayview.

Owner Kristin Houk launched the counter-service Mexican restaurant as a pop-up in 2015 and turned it into a brick-and-mortar at 4608 Third St. in 2018. Houk, who also owns All Good Pizza down the street and Cafe Alma in nearby Hunters Point, serves tantalizing tacos, burritos and even hamburgers at affordable prices. Tato’s best deal by far is a Friday pay-it-forward meal called “Taco Love.”

A server brings out plates of food to diners at Tato, in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood.

When you order a taco plate, which comes with two tacos — either meat or vegetarian — and a side of rice and beans, you pay what you can: anything between $0 and $10. However, when you do pay the full $10 price listed on the menu, you are essentially buying a meal for someone in need. Tato will pay it forward by donating a taco plate to a nearby school, health clinic or community organization. Houk estimates that she’s donated over 25,000 taco plates over the years.

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“I see food as a currency for myself. There’s nothing else that brings communities and people together than food,” Houk said while sitting at a high-top table in her restaurant. “I just really wanted to make this restaurant accessible for everybody.”

The Taco Love idea started when the brick-and-mortar opened in 2018, but it didn’t catch on. Houk thought that maybe people deemed it gimmicky or she didn’t do a good enough job promoting it. When the pandemic hit and many people needed food assistance, it was the perfect time to bring Taco Love........

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