Homemade Hustle Does Beats 'n' Brunch

Who: Editorial Assistant Abigail Wick

What: Beats and Brunch

Where: Bollyhood in the Baobob Village, San Francisco, Calif.

When: Saturday, March 27

Why: Delicious vegan food, friends, and sunshine. Obviously.

The Scoop: Babs Barry and Nikole Lent typify modern-day Renaissance women—they are clothing designers, founders of humanitarian fashion collective fAction, vegan activists and local-foods innovators. Operating under the moniker Homemade Hustle, Babs and Nikole wear funky, hand-crafted garb and dispense “guerrilla, vegan street food.” The pair's latest project is hosting a weekly vegan brunch at Bollyhood, part of the Senegalese-rooted Baobob Village.

Babs hustlin' in the kitchen.

Their inaugural event, Bollyhood Beats and Brunch, happened last Saturday on a splendid San Francisco afternoon. The eccentric crowd wore campy-chic duds, ranging from rhinestone cowboy and full-on Indian sari, to Turkish belly dancer and sweet-home-Alabama retro. People dined al fresco, sitting on rickety chairs at tiny café tables scattered across the sidewalk on 19^th and Mission Street. The quirky, inviting company comprised a colorful backdrop for the main attraction—sumptuous, simple fare.

Nikole serves salad with a sweet smile.

Homemade Hustle’s menu boasted “Big Guurl Salads” called No You Didn’t!—baked tofu, caramelized onions, snappy green apples, candied walnuts, shredded purple cabbage, avocado, and scallions with ponzu dressing on a bed of greens—and the fantastic Ya Herd Meh?—rigatoni pasta with creamy cauliflower and white lima beans, fresh grape tomatoes, shredded purple cabbage, onions, garlic, and lemon on tahini-dressed greens, with fresh cracked peppercorn.

The sandwiches included the Jesus, Joseph, and Mary—shiitake and trumpet mushrooms with barley, butternut squash purée, garlic kale with caramelized shallots, and avocado on homemade flatbread. One word: holy-mother-of-god. Homemade Hustle also offered the Durty 30—pulled seitan with purple cabbage slaw and sesame aioli on the aforementioned homemade flatbread.

Marika and vegan pancakes go hand-in-hand.

My vagabond friend Marika, back in town from a year hitchhiking through Mexico and Central America, ordered one of the pancake offerings, Mama Said Knock You Out—two vegan “buttermilk” pancakes topped with fresh, seasonal stewed fruit and covered with a whopping dollop of chocolate mousse. Yes, Marika had tears in her eyes—not only because her entrée tasted so good, but because she was too sated to order Fo’ Sho’—Korean pancakes with broccoli, scallions, and kim chi, served with rice vinegar and soy dipping sauce.

A whirlwind of snacks, sweets, and sides rounded out the affair—from Brazilian-Nigerian Acarajes to Badankadonk Bread Pudding. What, with terrific folks and tip-top food, Bollyhood Beats and Brunch is sure to become a local, Saturday institution. Three cheers to Babs and Nikole, the brains behind Homemade Hustle!