“All it’s been is just having good relationships with people in the industry and being as reliable as I can be,” he says. In the years since he’s grown the business almost entirely organically, he says, having taken out no loans when he started. Josh Harris and Morgan Schick of the Bon Vivants, the company behind Trick Dog and Chezchez, used to come into Al’s when he worked there and approached him about making custom aprons for their staff. The apron-making started with word of mouth, he says. And once he started working in restaurants, he realized he could make enough money to start working on launching his business he left Al’s Attire and went into the industry full-time, vowing to pursue his passion on the side. So on the side, he took jobs at upscale restaurants and bars around the city including Alexander’s Steakhouse, Sons and Daughters, and Michelin-starred Coi. The retail job wasn’t quite enough to pay the bills though, Ramos says, even as it grew into a passion. “But I just sat down at a sewing machine and applied myself,” he says. He’d never worked with fabric or leather before and didn’t know how to sew when he started. “I think that’s kind of what lit the spark,” he says. Ramos became enamored with the attention to detail that went into handmade and custom clothing - from the selection of the thread color to hand-cutting leather and transforming it into something with timeless appeal and durable design. He started down the path that would eventually lead to his Brisbane-based leather goods company Stagger Lee Goods a little more than a decade ago when he was working at Al’s Attire, a bespoke clothing shop in North Beach. “I didn't expect to make aprons,” Ramos says plainly. Nevertheless, food and beverage lovers in the city have probably seen his hand-sewn cotton and leather aprons on staff behind the stick, in the kitchen, or on the floor at destinations including Bar Iris on Polk Street, Mission cocktail spots Chezchez and Trick Dog, Rich Table, and NoPa’s all-day neighborhood cafe Automat. Alfred Ramos never planned on becoming the go-to apron guy for some of San Francisco’s best-known restaurant and bar owners.
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