Half century of service in South City

Realizing such a dilemma, Eduardo “Lalo” Haro and Humberto “Beto” Campos, former employees of La Palma themselves, saw an opportunity in the local economy and decided to open their own store in South San Francisco. 

Nearly 50 years since its founding, La Tapatia has continued to serve the community fresh tortillas, Mexican groceries and delicious food.

Originally opened solely as a tortilla factory, Haro and Campos would work days and nights making fresh tortillas to distribute to restaurants up and down the Peninsula. Eventually, local zoning laws concerning the location of factories pushed Haro and Campos to sell their tortillas, along with a few other items, out the front of the store.

With customers requesting more and more items, in 1987, the duo decided to focus on the store’s food, sold the rights to the tortilla factory and opened the taqueria. The storefront would eventually evolve into a combined Mexican grocery store and full-scale taqueria.

La Tapatia has been a dual-family business since its inception, with both Haro and Campos’ families lending a hand.

Since her father’s death in 2013, Barbara Haro, who was already working there, stepped up and filled his role along with her brother. Younger, newer members of the family have also found their places in the restaurant.

“Everybody has a role … that’s the cool thing about a family business, everybody has a specialty,” Haro said.

In five decades of business, La Tapatia has grown and changed just like the community around it. Haro said they get customers who bring their children in because their parents had come in back when they were kids.

With such a long history, it’s been a balancing act for La Tapatia, as they try to maintain their traditional ways while also keeping up with the times — they didn’t accept credit cards until three years ago. Even still, customers would go to the bank specifically in anticipation of their upcoming meal.

This combination of the old and new has led to La Tapatia, as Haro said, “slowly but surely changing with the times, but we still do everything the way we did it back in the day.”

Besides their in-house tortillas and chips, La Tapatia takes pride in its carnitas and chicharron. Customers come from as far as Stockton, Sacramento, Elk Grove, San Leandro and Hayward just for an order of the carnitas. 

Along with their pork products, Haro specifically enjoys the grilled chicken; wrapped in a homemade tortilla in a super burrito, perhaps paired with a Mexican soda and some homemade chips.

La Tapatia’s location itself has a much longer history; starting in 1895, the South City Printing Company published the South San Francisco Enterprise Journal out of the building. The first newspaper west of the Mississippi to use offset presses, the Enterprise Journal had a 109-year run before closing in 2004.

With such rich history, the building has been designated a “Historical Site” by the city of South San Francisco and changes to the storefront must abide by certain rules. It is fitting that such an integral part of the community as La Tapatia would take the place of such an important institution like the local paper; the restaurant has been a staple of the community ever since.

“It started out with two guys who just wanted to do this and make a living and support their families,” Haro said.

These values of hard work and family have always been central to the restaurant. Following the examples set by her father, who worked to the very end, and Campos who is still working at 75 years old, Haro hopes La Tapatia will continue on for a long time.

As Haro said, La Tapatia is more than just a market and taqueria.

“This is not just work for us,” she said. “This is our life.”

La Tapatia will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in fall of 2026. La Tapatia is located at 411 Grand Ave. and is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.