How Reem’s California Grew From Pop-up to Powerhouse

In 2010, Reem Assil dreamed of owning an Arab street corner bakery like the ones she frequented growing up in Lebanon and Syria. It was in those bakeries that she felt alive and found a sense of home and belonging, and she wanted to recreate that experience for others. “That became the mission of Reem’s,” she said of the bakery and restaurant she owns in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood. “While we serve really delicious food, we really want everyone who walks through our doors, no matter where they come from, or how much money they have in their pockets, to feel a sense of home.”

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The restaurant is aptly named Reem’s California, and one of its most popular dishes is its mana’eesh, a Lebanese flatbread baked on traditional griddles. “I wanted to give pizza a run for its money,” she explained. “Like moths to a flame, people loved it.” Mana’eesh and other authentic Middle Eastern dishes helped grow her business from a farmer’s market and pop-up to a full-fledged brick-and-mortar restaurant a year and a half later. 

But the secret to her business beyond her delicious, authentic dishes? Community and tech. 

How it started: Farmers market to brick-and-mortar in under 2 years

Assil officially opened Reem’s in 2014 as a small farmers market on Mission and Bartlett. “I had no idea what I was doing,” she said. “I wasn’t even a line cook. I was a trained baker and started my business learning how to build the plane while flying it.” She joined an incubator program called La Cocina to help her find her footing. “They help a lot of women-owned businesses here in the Mission District. And they helped me slowly but surely scale,” she explained. Pretty soon, she went from having a presence at one farmer’s market to several, sharing Arab street food all across the city. 

Less than two years later, she got the opportunity to open her first brick-and-mortar in the Fruitvale Oakland neighborhood. “I [still] had no idea what I was doing. I was very lucky,” she explained of the opportunity. She opened her bakery and cafe in Oakland, later turning it into a commissary kitchen and then a dedicated outpost for her catering business.

In 2020, she got another opportunity to open a new location in the same building where she used to operate pop-up shops. “The owners who owned a pie shop called Mission Pie reached out to us and said, “We think this is your spot.” And it felt very serendipitous,” Assil recalled. 

By March of 2020, she opened the doors of her new location. When pandemic-era shutdowns forced her to pivot away from the hospitality that had always been key to her business, she sought out tools that would allow her to find a balance. “Arab hospitality is all about smothering you in a loving way. Because our business had to become more fine-casual, we still wanted you to feel the experience,” Assil said. This desire ultimately led the business to Square.

How it’s going: Leveraging technology to create accessibility and grow staff

“Square has been such an invaluable tool for us because it’s so easy,” Assil said. “It has such a beautiful format for us to be able to showcase our menu and be able to explain it to customers, because our food is new to some people. Being able to organize it is important.” Even after customers order their food, Reem’s is committed to extending the same simplified yet seamless experience. Using tools like Square Handheld ensures that staff are able to check on customers and immediately cater to their needs, providing a cohesive experience.

“I love that Square Handheld fits in your back pocket and you can naturally upsell that extra glass of wine the customer wants in a way that’s not intrusive,” said Assil. “I love tools that just feel like second nature and allow you to provide that warmth. Because that’s really what we are trying to do,” she said. In addition to warmth, Square tools are also helping Assil build up her staff. 

Empowering her kitchen managers to understand when and why to remove a menu item helps deepen their leadership skills and prepare for the next step in their career. “Understanding what is making people happy? What is not? Where do we need to work? It’s like a puzzle,” Assil explained. But her kitchen managers have the Square app on their phones enabling them to monitor what’s working at any given time, establishing a full picture of what’s selling and what’s not. “Having the technologies where they can just pull that up in an easy, accessible way [empowers them],” she added. 

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The impact: Multiple revenue streams built on intersectionality

Reem’s blends Middle Eastern hospitality with easy-to-use tech, serving the Mission District’s diverse community through multiple channels. Next up? Events. The restaurant’s Sunday Supper series is a ticketed event where Assil and another chef cook up a collaborative menu for one Sunday a month. So far, Sunday Suppers have hosted celebrated chefs like Fernay McPherson and Arthur Grigoryan and have opened up another revenue stream for the business. “To be able to do events, restaurant operations, and catering all through one platform is super amazing,” Assil said. 

For Reem’s, bringing Sunday Suppers to life is also a reflection of the neighborhood. “In the Mission, you have people from all walks of life intersecting,” she said. “These intersections aren’t taking away from any of the cultures. It’s an exchange.” 

For Assil, intersections are where celebration and community take shape, and that’s ultimately what Reem’s will always represent. Assil emphasized this saying: “I love the meeting of different things. I love that I can celebrate my culture. I can feed people nourishing food. I can create a sense of home, and I can support marginalized communities—all in one spot.”