At this time of year, tomatoes are not too hard, not too soft — at peak ripeness. For the Nob Hill wine bar El Lopo, this Goldilocks period is celebrated with 30 pounds of tomatoes and a crowd of people ready to get messy.
For the second consecutive year, El Lopo has brought a taste of Spain to San Francisco with its very own Tomatopia, inspired by La Tomatina, held annually in the city of Buñol. Though the Spanish festival has drawn more than 40,000 people, compared with El Lopo’s 10, participants in Thursday evening’s Tomatopia say they had just as much fun.
Max Bamsey, a regular at El Lopo and friend of owner Daniel Azarkman, said he’d been excited for Tomatopia after missing last year’s inaugural festivities.
“I thought about different experiences in my life, and I was like, ‘Well, I’ve never been covered in tomato juice and seeds, so I can mark that off my list,’” Bamsey said. “Skydiving? No. Covered in tomato juice? Yes!”
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