A strip mall across from a Walgreens, next to the mostly shuttered Hilltop Mall in Richmond, is an unlikely setting for the next chapter of a San Francisco food institution. But that is exactly where Balompié, the Mission District's longtime Salvadoran restaurant, has planted its first East Bay flag, remodeling a former office space into a full restaurant and sports bar.
Balompié’s Richmond opening brings a longtime Mission District restaurant to a new neighborhood, in a strip mall across from a Walgreens and beside Hilltop Mall. The new restaurant and sports bar occupies a remodeled former office space at 2940 Hilltop Mall Road, according to RichmondSide. The Oaklandside reported that social media and word-of-mouth helped draw crowds in the first weeks. Co-owner Mauricio Gonzalez, who lives in Richmond, summed up the appeal: “It's the flavor.”
A Family Recipe That Dates to 1987
The Richmond restaurant extends a family-run operation whose roots go back to the Mission. Amadeo Gonzalez Figueroa opened Balompié at 18th and Capp streets in 1987, building its menu around his grandmother's recipes, according to SF Gazetteer. The original location has operated for 39 years, the outlet reports; head chef Patricia Jimenez has cooked there for 36 years and now works across all Balompié locations.
Gonzalez Figueroa, now 72, left El Salvador for the United States in 1974 at age 20 after playing semi-professional soccer there, according to the same account. He met future business partner Jacinto Soto while they were playing soccer in San Francisco's Dolores Park 50 years ago. Gonzalez Figueroa now co-owns the Richmond restaurant with Soto and Gloria Soto, who said its food is made on site. Soto lives in American Canyon. Gonzalez Figueroa has said he hopes to retire in El Salvador and coach children there.
Not Balompié's First Expansion Attempt
The Richmond restaurant follows several earlier changes in Balompié’s footprint. Gonzalez Figueroa opened a second cafe on Richland Avenue in San Francisco, then an outpost in Metapán, El Salvador. The family eventually closed the Metapán location because it was difficult to maintain quality control from afar, according to the SF Gazetteer account. A third location between Glen Park and Bernal Heights succeeded and was later sold to a partner.
Balompié means football, or soccer, in Spanish, and the restaurants pair that identity with Salvadoran food. Pupusas—thick grilled corn cakes filled with ingredients such as cheese, chicken, beans, pork, spinach or loroco—are a staple, typically served with red sauce, curtido, rice, beans or casamiento. The Richmond menu also lists breakfast plates, including two pupusas with eggs and plantain, along with meat and seafood dishes, yucca balls stuffed with cheese and shrimp, and corn and plantain pies filled with chicken, pork, beans or custard, according to the location’s Toast ordering page and RichmondSide’s reporting. The owners say the locations share food, ingredients and techniques, while the Richmond menu, events and community involvement may evolve over time.
Following Salvadoran Families Out of San Francisco
The move east also reflects where some Salvadoran families from San Francisco have settled. Mauricio Gonzalez and Deysi Ramos, both Richmond residents, immigrated from El Salvador to San Francisco in the 1980s and moved to Richmond in 1999, as Salvadoran and other Latin American immigrants left the city for less expensive East Bay communities, according to Oaklandside. Gonzalez Figueroa has identified San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Hercules and Rodeo as other West Contra Costa destinations for Salvadoran families.
Population figures and commercial rents illustrate the regional shift. Oaklandside reported that Contra Costa County’s Salvadoran population rose from roughly 7,000 in 2000 to 30,000 in 2020, while San Francisco County’s grew from about 11,700 to 16,682. The outlet also reported average restaurant-space rents of about $43 per square foot in San Francisco and $18 to $26 per square foot in Richmond.
A New Neighbor to a Mall in Transition
Balompié’s new location sits beside a mall site facing a long-term planning process. The City of Richmond’s Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan aims to guide the roughly 143-acre property’s shift from a low-intensity, auto-oriented retail center toward a higher-intensity, mixed-use destination, and includes an environmental review, according to the Hilltop Horizon website.
Hilltop’s transition and Richmond community resources
Hilltop Mall closed in April 2021, RichmondSide reported. The Hilltop Horizon website linked above says the site’s ultimate mix of uses and development program will be determined through planning and community and stakeholder engagement. For readers seeking a local community point of reference, Familias Unidas lists its Richmond address as 205 39th Street.
For now, Balompié's Richmond location is carving out its own identity inside that uncertain landscape, decorated in the same spirit as its San Francisco predecessor, with soccer matches on screen, local team sponsorships, banners, posters, and flags lining the walls. Amadeo Gonzalez Figueroa says the space welcomes families, friends, children, and anyone interested in any sport, not just soccer, extending a Mission District tradition to a new generation of regulars across the bay.
