By Michael Leung

In 2010, Mark Brodeth and his family started a family-run establishment on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond District called Lou’s Cafe. For five years, the cafe grew in popularity through word of mouth. Eventually, Brodeth and his family were able to open branch locations in other parts of San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Brodeth is currently the manager at the Lou’s Cafe branch located on Taraval Street near 25th Avenue. In addition to making sandwiches, he also interacts with his customers and enjoys making them happy by serving them food.

“Seeing them happy makes me happy,” he said.

The inspiration to open Lou’s Cafe came from his mother. Brodeth said she was the main caterer at Andronico’s for 35 years and had a passion for making sandwiches. Her passion inspired the rest of her family. Brodeth said he and his brothers always had an interest in food and they gained a love for making sandwiches by watching their mother work.

They also used to eat many sandwiches growing up, which helped inspire them to specialize at Lou’s Cafe. Brodeth said he and his brothers tried many of the local shops in San Francisco, such as Little Luca’s and Ike’s Place, and modeled Lou’s Cafe after them.

“The one that inspired us the most is Roxy’s Food Center.” Brodeth said. “They would toast sandwiches, and we thought, ‘Oh, if they can do it, why can’t we do it as well?’”

Lou’s was not immediately successful. Brodeth said that when they first opened, they did not see much business. However, after customers started spreading the word about Lou’s creations through word of mouth, Brodeth and his family found a major increase in customers.

Eventually, Lou’s Cafe was successful enough to open a restaurant on Taraval Street. There are also two locations downtown San Francisco, on Pine and Battery streets, and one in San Carlos.

Like the location on Geary, the Taraval branch did not get much business when it first opened. However, after a few months, business started to pick up.

“When we first started here, it was a little bit slow. But after a few months, word of mouth started getting around and we got busier,” Brodeth said.

Lou’s Cafe currently has five branches, each with a family member managing a location. The Taraval cafe can seat 20 people at a time and has a menu with a large selection of sandwiches, including a build-your-own sandwich option. Some popular selections include the Roma’s Club, with turkey, bacon, avocado and pastrami, the Ami-cado, with pastrami, avocado and salami with Lou’s special sauce, and the Hot Pastrami, with pastrami brisket and cheese.

A regular customer who calls himself Weasel frequently works in the Sunset. He said Lou’s Cafe is generous with their servings.

“You don’t have to wait that long like other places,” Weasel said. “And plus, the other places are cheap on the meat; Lou’s gives you a good amount.”

Brodeth said that the success of Lou’s can be attributed to its large customer base. He said he and his employees try to be as hospitable as possible and make their customers feel welcome. He said that it is thanks to them that Lou’s is so successful. Without their support, Lou’s Cafe wouldn’t have grown as much as it has.

Philo, a regular who has been going to Lou’s Cafe since 2015, says the staff is very welcoming.

“I come here because of the people,” Philo said.

Like many businesses, Lou’s Cafe found doing business was a struggle during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, Brodeth saw his business steadily declining because of the lockdown. Brodeth said they were worried they would have to close down like many other small businesses during the pandemic. However, they noticed that there was an increase in online orders. Thanks to the transition to online delivery, Lou’s managed to survive the impact of the pandemic.

“We started using DoorDash, Uber Eats, GrubHub and Postmates just to generate more business. And that helped us a lot,” Brodeth said.

Brodeth said that he and his family hope to continue to grow Lou’s Cafe. He said they hope to eventually turn Lou’s into a franchise. They have no plans to do so at the moment but will expand when the opportunity allows it.

Lou’s Cafe is located at 1508 Taraval St., at 25th Avenue, 415-682-4083. For more information, visit louscafesf.com. Hours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; and Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.