Before a packed crowd at St. Philips, as he was kicking off the town hall meeting, Bevan Dufty acknowledged a man in the audience -- Sergio Diaz from Real Food Company. The crowd reaction was cool, to put it mildly. Sergio did get some credit (mostly from Bevan Dufty) for standing in front of an (unsurprisingly) hostile crowd of Noe Valley folks. The Real Food Company space on 24th Street has been empty since they abruptly closed in 2003, and they've offered very little communication with the neighborhood during the intervening 5+ years.

Sergio gave his version of the timeline since the store closure, and allowed that mistakes had been made, and that things got out of control with structural issues, landlord disputes, and the bad economy, but that didn't allay the concerns of many folks in the audience. Many were skeptical of his sincerity when he suggested that they were trying to be a part of the neighborhood, after so many years of seeming to do just the opposite.

Sergio did offer up a couple bits of concrete information:

First, he said that Real Food Company settled yesterday with the NLRB and former Real Food workers, and that they'd be getting back pay with interest.

Second, Sergio insisted that Real Food Company would be going ahead with a store in their 24th Street space, and would not be looking to sell the space. He didn't offer any timeline, but said that the the project would likely be less ambitious than their previous plans for a 3-story mixed use building. Real Food's store (which would probably not go by the name Real Food Company) would complement, not compete with, Whole Foods, he said. They are a natural foods store, while Whole Foods is a specialty food store, he explained. It wasn't clear to most of the audience what the distinction was.

It was good to at least hear something about the largest empty storefront on 24th Street, even if it's still not clear when or exactly what will come of the Real Food Company space, nor what the community response will be should they open again.