properly as we were first receive Tammy Powers , a local police officer on Treasure Island stopped us to ask for her John Hancock . “ I want to be one of the first to get it , ” he laughed as he handed her his pad and pen . Turns out we were n’t the only one concerned in learn more about this formidable trans woman .
Just a few geezerhood ago , Powers was homeless and live on the street of San Francisco . Now she runs two successful concern , both of which she started from scratch entirely by herself . What the police officer – and everyone else on Treasure Island – knows is that Tammy is about to be celebrated . An L.A. movie maker ordered waffles from her Tammy ’s Chicken in Waffles waffle cart sooner this summer and asked a few doubtfulness about how it came about . She tell him her story . He care what he heard , so now he ’s making a docudrama about Tammy ’s life . And believe us , it ’s a report deserving have it off – and one that may have never come about if Tammy had n’t pop out catch some Z’s by the piddle on a humankind - made island in the middle of the Bay .
Treasure Island was build up in 1936 - 37 for the 1939 Golden Gate International Expo , a mediocre celebrating the engineering of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge . Technically , it is part of San Francisco , but the only way of life to get there is via the Bay Bridge or by boat . There are only about 2,000 full - meter residents , but on the weekends local anesthetic and tourist flock there for the monthly flea market place , the legion wineries , and the gorgeous view of the bridge , the H2O , and the San Francisco sensible horizon .
Molly Matalon
It ’s also the home plate of Tammy Powers ’ two businesses : Tammy ’s Chicken in Waffles , a waffle “ cart ” in a bright pink shipping container , and A Tran ’s Bay Bike Shop , the only place on the island to rent bikes or get yours fixed . Tammy does it all herself though , working around 17 minute a daytime , 7 days a week , so ( for now ) you ’ll have to wait for one shop class to come together to impose the other .
What made you decide to make San Francisco home?
I ’m originally from New York , but I move to California for high school and after that traveled around a bunch . I live in Colorado for a while and while I was there , I get really into working at bike shops and doing incredible slew biking with some really knowledgeable riders , which was an awe-inspiring experience .
But then my youthful sidekick died ; he had ARDS – Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome – and my mummy was so saddened by that . It broke her nitty-gritty and she perish five years after , which sent me into a state of low . But that ’s also what made me agnize our lives are all going to terminate finally , so you ’d better do the thing you need to do or else you ’re just plump to spend your whole life wishing it had been another fashion . That ’s what take me to at last do something about my gender transformation . I realise things are never going to be ripe until I take fear of my grammatical gender and I thought , “ If I ’m going to do that , I ’m go to do it in San Francisco . ”
So you moved to San Francisco without a place to live?
I have to San Francisco in December of 2010 . I was subside in , but I was living on the streets . I did n’t need to go into the shelter because they can be almost like gaol – they oversee you and tell you what you could and ca n’t do – and I also did n’t fit . Some of the women are mad at you … some of the man are mad at you … So I said I ’d rather slumber on the sidewalk , which I did .
But I always woke up positively charged knowing that bully thing were come to me that day – sure that was my day and good things were going to happen . I ’d go to the library and look for jobs and be as generative as potential , but by the oddment of the Clarence Day , I ’d feel tick down and just not understand why things were n’t find for me . But then I ’d wake up the next day feel confirming again thinking , “ undecomposed hooey is going to happen to me today . ”
And one Clarence Day I was star at the new Bay Bridge span – long before it even open to cars – and a light electric light go off that I should open up a bike store on Treasure Island .
Molly Matalon
How did you go from living on the streets to opening a successful bike shop?
I went to the offices on Treasure Island and asked , “ Where do I rent a seat on here ? ” They thought I mean to know , so they send me to the untimely place and I said , “ No , I want to start a business . ” They gave me a weird look like , “ Who start a business here ? ” But they told me who to babble to .
Eventually I find a place that would forge , but I had to have insurance , first and last calendar month ’s rent , and tools . Thankfully , I got doored by a car — someone open a car threshold on me when I was on my bike — so I catch a $ 3000 settlement . It was n’t much – most the great unwashed could never part a clientele with that , but it was one of the practiced thing that happened to me .
The very first sidereal day I opened the door of my shop , I did n’t have the next month ’s tear . Anyone in the world would state you that you ca n’t start a clientele that way , but I did n’t have a choice . I did n’t have a sound . I did n’t have internet . I did n’t have anything . I just had the will and want and tenacity and that ’s all you really require if you want to make it .
I put sign of the zodiac up at all of the busbar stops on Treasure Island let people have it away a bicycle shop had open up . masses in San Francisco were wary ; they told me they ’d never seen bike on Treasure Island , but I said , “ You sleep together what ? I bet there ’s a ton of bikes just pose in people ’s garages that they do n’t need to bring into the city to get fixed . ” I told them people are just wait for a cycle store , I make out it . And they sure were .
How did you come up with the nameA Tran’s Bike Shop?
Well “ transbay ” is very vulgar terminology for commuter in the Bay Area and one day I was like , “ Well I ’m a trans bay … ”
I ’ve had people walk into the shop and they look at me and go , “ Oh now I get it . ” And I say , “ Thank you ! ”
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What made you want to open a second business?
After a year and a half of having my wheel shop , I really needed a cupful of coffee in the good morning , so I proposed to my landlord that I start a coffee berry go-cart . He suggested a spot to me that I could never have woolgather of with scene of the bridge and the skyline . At first , it was just a pushcart that I hang a wooden sign on that said , “ Coffee . ” finally I got a wassailer and begin also serving bagels .
When I opened the coffee tree pushcart everyone said , “ Oh my gosh , what a gravid estimate . ” I did n’t have the heart to recite them it was n’t a bully estimate . Everyone on the island had the estimation ; I just did something about it . I awake up every good morning at 3 am to promote the pushcart out to my spot , rip the electrical energy out of the ground , and plug everything in so I could start serving people coffee by 6 am .
How’d you come up with the idea for Tammy’s Chicken in Waffles?
With the coffee cart , sometimes the conditions would pop me and I ’d have to shut out down , so I told my landlord I want to put in some form of wandering structure . I bonk I wanted to serve solid food , but I was n’t certain what . Someone on the island already serves breakfast burritos and there ’s a café that serves bang-up solid food , like croissant Gallic toast . I wanted to make food that would n’t step in with anyone else ’s business .
I thought , well , no one ’s doing waffle and those are kind of easy . I did n’t recognize anything about the food industry , but thought , “ How hard can it be ? ” And then I started think about how much I love chicken and waffle , and just realized I was going to put the poulet in the waffle . It ’s so uncomplicated : full cooked chicken strips on the waffle iron with the batsman . And citizenry right away loved it . Now I have customers I see almost every single daytime , and also those the great unwashed who have their day of the week that I ’m their dainty .
So not only do you own two businesses, but you also somehow find time to do stand-up comedy?
When I was living on the pavement , it was the most miserable time of my life , but I figured if I could make a elbow room full of people laugh , it would help oneself me forget about my troubles for a little while . So I found open mic nighttime and did that almost every night .
That ’s what I did with my misery .
[ Watch Tammy Powers doing stand - up . ]
What’s next for you?
I have vision . All I do is stare at the Bay Bridge and I have programme for it . I want to unfold a wheel shop on the East Bay side of the bridge , so that when the bike track open , I ’m the one doing all of the rentals . When I first set up my motorcycle shop , people would require , “ What are you going to do for all of the people who require to go all the way into San Francisco ? ” [ Ed . musical note : The new bike path will only lead from the East Bay to Treasure Island . ] And I was like , I have enough to concern about , but then I realized , someone has to come up with an answer to that and no one has .
Eventually , I want to have a bicycle shop at the end of every bridge with a bike lane in the Bay Area . And a Tammy ’s Chicken in Waffles next to each one .
I ’m also uneasy to start up hiring trans multitude , as well as locals on Treasure Island because there are n’t a sight of jobs here .
Molly Matalon
" If someone had severalise me I ’d be here in five years and that I ’d have two different businesses …. But I had no choice . What was I go to lose ? Nothing . I had nothing else . "
What do you think the hardest obstacle was to overcome?
To finally jump in and commence my transformation – that was what was misaligned throughout my whole living . It ’s was n’t like some miracle happened where once I did transition everything was lustrous and gay . I still had the process of re - align everything I ’m supposed to be in accordance with my brain , physical structure , and spirit , but now I ’m much more settled .
It ’s bizarre because I had to become a woman to be at ease . And then I had to find out what eccentric of cleaning lady I am . I have no regrets – this is not me lamenting at all because I have no desire to go back – but I am the character of woman who like to do guy rope things and nothing but cat thing . I ride a motorcycle . I fix motorcycle . I do n’t really care wearing makeup . I do n’t really wish wearing dresses . I do sometimes , but normally I ’m in jean . And that ’s just the form of wench I am .
What advice would you give others?
You have to be capable to see things . And mold for it . Work hard . If someone had recite me I ’d be here in five years and that I ’d have two different patronage and own a bike , but to get there I ’d have to wake up at 3 am in the morning time every day for a year and bear on a go-cart outdoors in the iniquity . And that sometimes before I could even pop , the rain is go to set forth and I ’m buy the farm to go back in spite of appearance and be hapless . And that I ’d have to do that every day … Most masses would say , “ I ca n’t do that . ” But I had no selection . What was I going to misplace ? Nothing . I had nothing else . That ’s why I say I ’m thankful .
Because when I was lonely and miserable , I ’d secernate myself stop cry out and write a business plan . I ’d tell myself : Think of something . Be constructive . Do something . Do anything .
Molly Matalon
Molly Matalon