When you walk into Teranga, you’re greeted by the warm glow of Edison bulbs, the aroma of African dishes, and the lively conversation of waitresses. Senegalese flags hang on the walls and African sculptures and handmade dolls adorn shelves and counters. It’s a fitting atmosphere for a restaurant whose name means “hospitality” in Wolof, the national language of Senegal.
Owner Nafy Flatley chose the moniker to mirror her business objectives — “hospitality, love, and respect to all my customers,” she told The Frisc. At Teranga she offers this spirit alongside hearty peanut stews, jollof rice, and fresh, house-made ginger, tamarind, and hibiscus juices.
Teranga went through a few iterations to get to its home at 4 Embarcadero Center: first as an informal business at the University of San Francisco; later, as a drinks company and farmers market stand; then, in 2020, its first iteration as a brick and mortar restaurant in the Tenderloin.
From there, in late 2023, Flatley joined SF’s Vacant to Vibrant program. The initiative, which provides free rent to help businesses open in empty downtown storefronts, led her to her current space. She’s since won the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year and received the Alliance for Community Development’s Social Innovation Award.
The Frisc sat down with Flatley to hear what business is like downtown, how she’s navigating the current political climate, and what it took to get Teranga off the ground in SF.
The conversation has been edited and condensed.
The Frisc: How did Teranga come to be?
Nafy Flatley: I started Teranga [officially] in 2015 as a supplier of exotic and organic drinks to students and street vendors, but I didn’t fathom it would reach its flourishing stage.
I was spurred by fellow students and faculty members while studying for my bachelor’s degree in international business at the University of San Francisco in 2005. [While there] I attracted attention [by serving] homemade Senegalese drinks and other African foods during International Culture Days. My customers were effusive with praise for the products. Many of them urged me to open a restaurant.
After graduating in 2006, I worked at several Silicon Valley startups, including Mimosa Systems, in marketing, but [I left] in 2015. I then shifted to developing Teranga by rolling out [the] registration [process].
What was it like to establish a business in SF?
The process was fraught with obstacles — writing a business plan wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I sought support from experienced people and organizations like MEDA, La Cocina, and the Renaissance [Entrepreneurship Center]’s women entrepreneurship program. They helped me create a logo and provided market opportunities for my products. Meanwhile, Kiva gave me a loan of $5,000, which I added together with my own $6,000 — a severance package I had received in my previous work — as startup capital.
After its registration, Teranga began with beverages as consumer-packaged goods by selling to coffee shops, grocery stores, and farmers’ markets. Those who have been to Africa would ask me for African food during the farmers’ markets, and the interest in my products sprouted. Ordering for birthday parties expanded too. Whoever ordered my food would tell me to open a restaurant.
Where did you first open a brick and mortar space?
I first opened the Teranga restaurant in the Tenderloin in 2020, but the business didn’t have a good profit because of its unsuitable location. The presence of many vagrants and drug dealers hindered the flow of customers. When the pandemic hit, Teranga almost closed down, but with the support of the city and other nonprofit organizations it received contracts to feed drifters, elderly, and first responders, and to support after-school programs.
In 2023, in partnership with the city and sponsor Wells Fargo, the SF New Deal announced the Vacant to Vibrant Program to revitalize downtown. Teranga received approximately $6,000 in funding which I injected into the business. The program also helped me move to 4 Embarcadero Center and paid five months’ rent. Now, Teranga pays on its own. I can’t tell you how much I pay for rent, but it’s below the current market rate.
My feeling is that downtown should be recreated and reinvented in a totally different way.
Nafy Flatley, Teranga owner
What are some challenges particular to your business?
Buying ingredients in bulk is one way to haggle for a discount and earn a profit. But for small restaurants like Teranga it is risky. They can easily putrefy, especially if they are perishable goods and you don’t have good preserving equipment.
Another obstacle my restaurant faced has been business segmentation — whether to choose one group or more to target: Americans, Senegalese, or Africans. Selecting Senegal sounded easy, but due to lack of customers, I decided to diversify the restaurant to include Nigerian food as well.
What’s it like to run a restaurant in the Embarcadero Center?
It seems more people are coming to offices these days, although … people work in-person for only three days in a week, Tuesdays through Thursdays. It is not easy for someone like me who relies on offices for customers. Like today is Monday, and my restaurant has been very slow.
I learned that the city and different nonprofit organizations are planning to organize concerts and conferences toward the end of the summer that would bring more people to downtown. But more people doesn’t mean good business. You can see a lot of people around the area, but still they don’t buy enough.
How have you found customers?
Most clients find Teranga online. Teranga is active on social media platforms — Instagram, Facebook — and at pop-ups where it showcases its products.
Since 2021, Teranga has witnessed growth in various ways: an increase of weekly catering services from two additional restaurateurs to three. Most of Teranga’s customers come from nearby offices. The business has been built on them for the last three years.
My business profits more during vacations. November and December are good because people break for holidays and search for preferable food. The same with February, Black History Month. These times, people often search for African food through different social media platforms.
The trend has been that people will support businesses during monthly celebrations that uplift a certain group and ethnic like Black History Month or Latino History Month or Arab History Month, et cetera. And because I am African, I tend to solicit during that time.
Have you encountered any setbacks as an immigrant?
With the current political climate, it is very difficult to keep your staff if they are immigrants. And it is even harder if you are an immigrant to sustain yourself and continue in the business — you don’t easily get trusted and grow faster like someone who’s 100% American, who was born, raised, and educated here.
Will you stay in the same location?
For now, I will stay here until another better opportunity comes up. It is better than nothing, but also in the hope that maybe things will get better.
San Francisco’s recovery has been taking a longtime compared to other cities. I have been to different cities after the pandemic, not even outside California — cities like Los Angeles and Sacramento. Their downtowns are much more vibrant than San Francisco. I don’t really know why it is taking so long in San Francisco. It’s crazy here!
And yet we have many big tech companies in the area. I know that a lot of tech companies are moving out of the outskirts of the Financial District because it is more like residential areas but still, [it] shouldn’t be like the way it is.
My feeling is that downtown should be recreated and reinvented in a totally different way. It is no longer like a place where people go to meet and eat or do business. But I will continue staying with hope things will improve.
What support from SF and other organizations would help small businesses like yours?
If they can support with rent like they did in the Vacant to Vibrant program, but in a much longer term, it would be nice. Three or six months is not enough. In the food business, it takes about a year to really figure out whether things will work or not.
Another thing that would be helpful is coordination between the city, organizations, and companies around the area so that we know our customers’ availability. We need data that shows when people are available in offices. It is so discouraging, for example, if you open on Monday and nobody shows up. At the end you pay your staff, then you run at a loss. So, here we need the city to help.
You import many ingredients, including baobab, hibiscus, moringa, fonio, and tiger nuts. How have the recent U.S. tariffs impacted you?
Prices have gone up because of tariffs. Some packages come from China, although we have recently seen some companies making them here, but their prices are still a little higher. I tried to buy from these companies here in the U.S., but it didn’t work out. And importing has not been easy like before the imposition of tariffs. The suppliers face challenges as well — a lot more delay has been happening than before.
Like the product labels that I use for my packaging: I buy directly from an American company, but their price has gone up. They even have issues getting raw ingredients like ink, which they import from China.
Despite these price hikes, I haven’t increased much in my prices, because I don’t really know when these hiccups will stabilize. And I don’t want to chase away my customers.
Do you have a plan to expand?
Right now, our aim is to make the current location successful by sustaining it, then see what to do next. We first want to be popular here, because this is the city where Teranga was born.
What are you most proud of?
I am proud of my customers, especially when they are happy with my products. There is nothing that makes me more excited than seeing the same customer coming back again tomorrow.
What do you want to share with people who might want to start a small business in San Francisco?
Go for it. Don’t be scared! Don’t be afraid! I always say you should pursue your dreams, and don’t be afraid to make the world a better place, especially with entrepreneurial ideas.
There are a lot of people in San Francisco with rich resources, you should take advantage of them. If you have an American dream, and you want to fulfill it here in San Francisco, go for it.
