sol food

After almost a month on the road, it feels good to be unpacking my bags for a while and making coffee in my own kitchen. In the past weeks, there’s been family time and old friends and new friends and lots of music and plenty of good food. More on those soon…

With an empty kitchen last night, I decided to walk downtown to one of the favorite local foodie spots: Sol Food. I figured their homestyle comfort food would do me good to settle in to my minicity life.

Sol Food is hard to miss in San Rafael with two locations within blocks of each other – and one of them painted lime green! Their homestyle Puerto Rican food is so good that just the rice+beans are worth waiting in line for. For me, the standard is their veggie combo with perfectly olive-garlic-herbed pink beans and a couple of their tostones (crispy garlic fried plantains), along with rice, avocado and a handful of mixed greens. Simple and just right.

photo by nealpatel

It’s always a buzz of energy just walking inside. The interiors of both locations are bursting with color, well-worn furniture, and potted plants in containers of all shapes and sizes. The knives and forks are in buckets on each of the communal tables, and piles of napkins are weighed down with plantains. Plus they make a killer hot sauce.

photo by cproppe

PS Check out this (hilarious) grievance letter that the owner posted (in a lime green frame) by the restaurant’s front door.

Sol Food
732 4th Street
San Rafael, CA