Mama's (restaurant)

Mama's on Washington Square is a family-owned restaurant in San Francisco, California, located in the Italian district North Beach on the corner of and Filbert Street, across from Washington Square (San Francisco). Founded in 1964, Mama's serves breakfast, brunch, and lunch, and its own baked goods and gift baskets. The restaurant specializes in omelettes, salads, and sandwiches, and sells homemade jam, fresh baked bread, and pastries.

Herbert Sherbet Shop 1951 - 1964
Michael Joseph Sanchez Sr. and Frances Muriel Lent married in San Francisco in 1946. With four children underfoot by 1951, they leased a small business location at 1701 Stockton Street in North Beach where they opened an ice cream and confectionery shop called Herbert's Sherbet. Frances helped run the ice cream and candy shop while Michael sold life insurance policies for Occidental Life from a back office. Earlier, as a young man, Sanchez had a small produce company with two of his brothers, they imported lime from Mexico, their native country before immigrating with their family to San Francisco in 1927. The Sanchez’s became a vital part of the tight-knit North Beach community among its mostly native Italian shopkeepers, bakers, coffee roaster’s, and bar and restaurant owners of the early 20th Century.

“Mama’s on Washington Square” 1960s
Thirteen years later the Sanchez’ decided to try their hand at the restaurant business. They took the wall down between the back office and the ice cream store, and in 1964 the location was remodeled into a cozy, 14 table restaurant that Michael Sanchez Sr. named "Mama's on Washington Square" placing a heart instead of an apostrophe in the word Mama’s to honor Frances, who by then was “Mama” to their eight children. The fresh inspiration of Mama's unique American Cuisine-style breakfast menu, fresh seafood, vegetable, and fruit salads, and Italian baguette sandwiches attracted long lines that grew outside the restaurant as Mama and Papa cooked side-by-side with Italian native Mary Balzarini and a loyal staff who served the crowds.

In 1970 “Papa” gave the restaurant to "Mama" as a personal gift. He went on to create “Mama’s of San Francisco,” a corporation formed to expand the Mama’s quality brand under Macy’s of California in its flagship store at Union Square. An instant success, long lines of customers snaked throughout Macy’s Cellar in 1972 to eat at the expanded Mama’s at Macy's Cellar. Sanchez opened eight Mama’s locations, with several in the South Bay Area at Macy’s Stores, as well as a flagship location in the Gramercy Towers on Nob Hill, and on the corner of Geary and Mason St., all of which Sanchez closed by 1997.

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