Bissap Baobab Wins Fight With NIMBY Condo Neighbors, Gets Alcohol License

The Mission Street neighbors of Bissap Baobab failed to block the Senegalese restaurant and nightclub’s beer and wine license, as the state ABC ruled that Bissap Baobab has done more than adequate soundproofing work.

Mission District Senegalese nightclub and restaurant Bissap Baobab has been around in one form or another since the mid-1990s, but its last few years have been exceptionally difficult. Longtime Bissap Baobab and Little Baobab proprietor Marco Senghor was almost driven out of the country in a 2019 Trump-era immigration crackdown, a legal saga that effectively forced Senghor to close both businesses. Bissap Baobab pulled off a comeback and reopened at the former Lupulandia Brewery space at Mission and 18th Streets last September, but within months, a group of condo owners in the building next door lobbied to get Bissap Baobob’s alcohol license revoked because they felt the club was too noisy.

That led to an eight-hour hearing in March at the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC). But the ABC has handed down their decision on that hearing, and Eater SF reports that Bissap Baobob can retain its alcohol license.

According to Eater SF, the ABC ruled that Senghor “made specific efforts to improve compliance with the noise conditions,” and that Bissap Baobob operating as a nightclub would be “in furtherance of a revitalization effort in the Mission District.”

The ruling only applies to Bissap Baobab’s beer and wine license. The restaurant’s liquor license application is still pending.

But this is still a landmark win for Senghor, and Mission District nightlife in general. “I had tears talking to my friends, saying I didn’t think this was possible,” Senghor told Eater SF. “Let’s make peace and make the Mission shine. I’m not gonna go nowhere.”

Related: The New, Big Bissap Boabab Has Big Problems With Condo Neighbors’ Noise Complaints [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist