February 13, 2025

Hello Dear Reader:

It’s hard for me to believe, but I’ve owned Chile Lindo for 30 years now. Inspired by my long-term vision as brand ambassador, I continue to promote Chilean products and culture. Chile Lindo is a vital part of the cultural identity of our beautiful, unique, challenging and forward-thinking City by the Bay. In San Francisco, Chile Lindo is a brand, and now I’m working to maximize its potential. This week, I established key contacts at Fundación Imagen de Chile, the public-private entity that promotes Chile internationally and develops the “Marca Chile” brand.

I introduced my work and dedication to promoting Chile for three decades. I explained that San Francisco provides the optimal platform to highlight “Marca Chile,” due to its cosmopolitan appeal, international prestige, and a powerful city brand identity. This city's claim to fame is its inclusivity, diversity, and innovative spirit from culinary arts to technology. 

I’ve tracked Chile’s branding initiatives closely from the outset, and the team led by Executive Director Rossana Dresdner and Brand Management Director Victor Palma is achieving notable results. Robert Govers, a senior partner at Anholt & Co, an international consulting firm on national brands, after a week in Chile reported: "The NBI (National Brands Index) is a measurement of 50 countries and their performance in terms of name recognition and reputation. Chile has room for improvement, but it is also among the 10 countries with the fastest growing reputation."

Chile lacks a single, powerful branding angle, so it’s leveraging its diversity: geography spanning arid deserts to Antarctica, products ranging from wine and seafood to minerals, and a population encompassing indigenous communities and tech-savvy youth. Thus, the Marca Chile strategy is to narrow its range down to three significant characteristics: Sustainability, Democracy, and Diversity. I love this! It's both innovative and contemporary.

Sustainability:

• This refers to Chile's commitment to environmental protection and responsible resource management, aiming to balance economic development with the preservation of natural ecosystems. 

Democracy:

• This highlights Chile's strong democratic institutions and commitment to citizen participation and human rights. 

Diversity:

• This emphasizes the richness and variety of Chilean culture, including its ethnic, geographical, and social diversity. 

To Fundación Imagen de Chile, I proposed leveraging my San Francisco base and Chile Lindo’s iconic Mission District presence to promote Chilean brands and culture. My marketing will feature the “Marca Chile” logo, and they’ll provide promotion and contacts to potential sponsors interested in reaching the San Francisco market. Chile Lindo is a small business with a big vision, building a network one empanada at a time. This is a potential win-win.

Moving on: I have outstanding upcoming events at Chile Lindo Kitchen Culture.

First, Sugoi Brewing Company, a new San Francisco craft beer, is launching a beer produced for Japanese restaurants. This launch event is quintessential San Francisco. Boris Chen, who comes from a Taiwanese immigrant family and had a successful career in tech, switched to craft brewing for Japanese restaurants, launching his new pilsner in a Chilean kitchen where we will pair his beer with my empanadas. Voilà, so SF. For this event Chile Lindo will serve a special Japanese chicken curry empanada to go with Boris' crisp Nagoya Nights pilsner. For further details, refer to the attached flyer and RSVP at chilelindosf@gmail.com.

Next up, I’m producing a series of talks highlighting the hospitality industry. My tribe deserves the spotlight. We shoulder the weight of many responsibilities to enhance the city, safeguard its history, and generate employment. In today’s dystopian times, restaurants and bars don’t break even, so their owners need an even break. Let’s raise a glass to those that pour the drinks and keep the venue lights on so that we dance and sing. Expect many captivating stories.

The series kicks off with the brilliant, witty, compassionate and lovely Janet Clyde, part-owner of Vesuvio Café in North Beach. Since 1948, this world-renowned San Francisco saloon continues to attract local poets and tourists. Part of its legacy is its central role in the Beat Generation. In San Francisco, it’s likely the only bar with a functioning gas lamp and every inch displays artistic and historic value.

“A trip to north in 1978 changed my life forever.”—Janet Clyde

I’m looking forward to welcoming Janet, a Mission District resident, to Chile Lindo Kitchen Culture. Our monthly talks will be on the last Wednesday of each month, starting Wednesday, February 26th at 6:30pm. On Wednesday, March 26th, I’ll welcome Charles and Krissy Harb, owners of Charlie’s Café; and Marco Senghor, the owner of the Senegalese restaurant Bissap Baobab Village will follow on Wednesday, April 30th.

RSVP: chilelindosf@gmail.com

Finally, I’m featured on Chilean TV, Canal 13, in a show called Sueño Americano that starts airing in March. So stay tuned.

Saludos,

Paula Tejeda

Chile Lindo

MARCA CHILE

www.marcachile.cl/en/chile-pais-de-mujeres/

Photo: © Chris Schmauch, GoodEye Photography

Hey, Beer Lovers! Discover Sugoi Brewing Company.

Taste the Japanese-inspired San Francisco pilsner, Nagoya Nights, created by Boris Chen.

A San Francisco-ONLY event: from software startup success to craft brewery founder.

Beer Launch Event - $39.75

Two Sundays: Noon to 3PM

SUN FEB 23

SUN MAR 2

Chile Lindo Kitchen Culture

2943 16th Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

RSVP: ChileLindoSF@gmail.com

(first come, first served)

Instagram: @sugoibrewing

Boris Chen, whose parents immigrated from Taiwan, was born near Atlanta, Georgia, and moved to Southern California at age 7. 

Subsequently, he studied electrical engineering at UC Berkeley, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The 90s saw the rise of craft breweries. While in Berkeley, Boris discovered the local Bison Brewery that sparked the idea “it would be cool to try to make my own beer.” That idea would be shelved.

Following graduation, he found work at tech companies and startups. Almost ten years later, his old dream reemerged, prompting him to give beer brewing a try. Year after year, he tested results with his pals. 

Fast forward to the post Covid era, tired of zoom-meetings, having sold his cybersecurity startup, Boris traded tech to follow his passion: perfecting the art of craft brewing. 

Consistent with his scholarly inclinations, he gained certification as a BJCP beer judge, and regularly judges at competitions in California."

The move from home brewer to professional beer maker was a destined next step. “Every home brewer has had some fantasy of making beer professionally, and I'm no different. So last year, I decided to focus on making beers I feel were missing in the marketplace,” says Boris. He explains that the local Asian market is an opportunity because Asian restaurants only offer imported beers. His trips to Taiwan, Korea and Japan revealed a “thriving craft beer scene,” inspiring him to brew beers with Asian flavors.

Boris says: “I’m on a mission to make the best beers I can make, that go well with Asian food. He adds: “I love history, and learning about cultures. And so, it's great to study culinary history, to inspire new ideas in the world of beer.” 

In his opinion, a great beer elevates any meal, yet its true value lies in its ability to connect people despite technological divides: “beer can bring people together.” 

Connecting people is at the heart of the vision: “Beer has been with humans for thousands of years, and it’s played a role in our survival. I think it has a role to play in our survival going forward too.”

Boris recently discovered that his great-grandfather was not only the mayor of a town in Taiwan, but also founded a Chinese wine company famous for its red rice wine, leading him to conclude: “so there’s some alcohol-making in my blood.”

Photo: © ChileLindo.com

Housed in a 1913 Italian Renaissance Revival building, Vesuvio Café became a popular hangout for members of the Beat Generation, including Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who opened the famous City Lights Bookstore next door in 1953.

For years, it’s hosted writers, poets, artists, musicians, and others looking for a stiff drink. Its original Beat-era Bohemian spirit is still very much alive; little has changed there in the last six decades."

--National Trust for Historic Preservation

CHILE IN THE HEADLINES

Chile Lindo’s Goooool al Merkén empanada is made with the best spice in the world and Isabel’s brand, Kellü-Milla, is the best in Chile!

I came up with a new empanada recipe for the 2016 Copa América tournament and called it Goooool al Merkén. Notice the label’s design; it’s a tribute to the Chilean national soccer team’s jersey, called la Roja. The label features the dates 1916-2016, highlighting the Copa’s 100-year anniversary. That year Chile won!

In a nod to Chilean fútbol and culinary traditions, for my Copa América recipe I used merkén, a Mapuche spice from la Araucanía. Merkén is a mild, smoky spice made with ají cacho de cabra, ground coriander seeds, and sea salt.

I source mine from Isabel Levio Curiqueo, a Mapuche woman that lives and works at an indigenous community in Southern Chile called Ranquilco Alto.

CHILEAN CUISINE & CULTURE -- CONNECTING & CREATING COMMUNITY



Join my newsletter to

STAY CONNECTED

ChileLindo.com