Simileoluwa Adebajo posted 42 words on Twitter on Friday morning, letting her 400 or so followers know she was quitting her job as a financial analyst to open a Nigerian restaurant in San Francisco. With a hashtag and a smile emoji, she hit send and took a nap, thinking the post wouldn’t garner much attention.

“So I’ve quit my job as a financial Analyst to open the first #Nigerian restaurant in the city of San Francisco. Tbh I’m not sure of exactly what I’m doing but I’ll do my best with what I have. Wish me luck, guys,” the post read.

So I've quit my job as a financial Analyst to open the first #Nigerian restaurant in the city of San Francisco. Tbh I'm not sure of exactly what I'm doing but I'll do my best with what I have. Wish me luck, guys. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/dAJQQJSdIW — Simileoluwa. (@simileolu) April 5, 2019

A few hours later, she woke to her phone vibrating. The post had gone viral after being retweeted more than 15,000 times and liked nearly 60,000 times. Her follower count had jumped to more than 2,400.

Adebajo had spent the better part of a year in relative obscurity running a pop-up restaurant. Instantly, the culinary world was taking notice of her small business, Eko Kitchen, and the fact that it would become San Francisco’s first Nigerian restaurant on May 3.

“It was absolutely crazy. I didn’t think the reaction would be like that,” Adebajo said. “I’m still trying to process everything.”

The viral nature of Adebajo’s tweet, which included a pair of charming, professionally shot photos of her standing on a city street, was due in part to the fact that it touched on familiar Bay Area talking points.

San Francisco’s dining scene is recognized around the world as a mecca, overflowing with celebrity chefs and Michelin stars, but it has a notable dearth of African food businesses. Through her tweet, Adebajo was being hailed as a trailblazer. Furthermore, she was doing something many in the country’s tech capital only dream of doing — quitting a well-paying day job to pursue a passion project.

“The truth is, I’m a good financial analyst. I can do a three-year projection for you right now and draw up charts and graphs and strategic recommendations, but I haven’t been happy,” she said. “I was spending eight hours a day staring at a spreadsheet. I realized plating just one plate of food gave me more satisfaction than eight hours of being a financial analyst could ever give me.”

Adebajo officially launched Eko Kitchen in July and operated it out of a commissary kitchen in the Mission. The food was available through delivery services like Uber Eats and Postmates.

“It wasn’t that popular, if I’m being honest. Not in the beginning. And it was expensive to run,” Adebajo said, who said she would have a lot of orders some weekends and only a few on another. “There were times where I felt really discouraged.”

It was a hard venture to keep alive, she said, especially while working her day job. Hoping to generate more business, at least to see if the pop-up was worth maintaining, she moved into Joint Venture Kitchen, a commissary kitchen at 11th and Howard streets that has a dining room for pop-ups, and added a dine-in element to her business. Quickly, business exploded.

Adebajo’s ticketed pop-up events, featuring her jollof spaghetti, fried mackerel in tomato sauce, and Nigerian honey beans served with crayfish, sold out every month from the time she moved into Joint Venture Kitchen in November until last month, when the entire dinner was booked as part of a birthday party.

Eko Kitchen’s exponential growth wasn’t lost on Oluwunmi Akinbayo, who is Nigerian and frequented the pop-up since it launched last year.

“You have to appreciate Simi’s tenacity on this idea,” he said. “She has created an art form with her food. It’s familiar food she makes, but there’s just something so different about it. She tells a story through it.”

On Twitter, people’s exuberance for the venture was palpable: “Wishing you all the very best dear,” wrote one Twitter user. “All the best Simi. God has got you,” said another.

Temi Adamolekun attended one of the events with her family during Eko Kitchen’s notable run. Adamolekun is Nigerian and has previous experience in the local restaurant industry on the public relations side. Eko Kitchen’s wave of popularity is a byproduct of Nigerian culture becoming more popular in the U.S., she said.

From music, with artists like Burna Boy headlining Coachella, to fashion, with Beyoncé collaborating with Nigerian designers, Nigeria’s pop culture footprint is expanding.

“The industry isn’t easy, and Nigerian food doesn’t do so well in terms of presentation. But Simi does a great job with it,” Adamolekun said. “There’s a lot of positivity coming out of Nigeria in terms of music and art really crossing over into the mainstream consciousness. Simi is a part of that.”

Joint Venture Kitchen’s operators presented Adebajo with a chance to become a permanent resident at the building. She would be able to serve dinner at the space Monday through Friday, splitting the days with a Mexican food business. Then on Saturday and Sunday, she would have the building to herself. With the offer on the table, she quit her job at Twitch.

“I would rather not be the person who is half-assing through life,” she said. “I was giving 40 percent of myself to my job and 60 percent of myself the restaurant, which I was only doing on the weekend at the time. I decided I’d rather be the person who was really good at this one thing in particular than just average at a few menial things.”

Though there were no Nigerian restaurants in the city when Eko Kitchen came to life last year, Adebajo found inspiration in one place in particular — Bissap Baobab. The Senegalese restaurant and dance club in the Mission District is closing soon, but over the last two decades has been a beacon for West African culture.

While attending graduate school at the University of San Francisco, Adebajo said it was the place she would go when she was feeling homesick. The food reminded her of being around family, the music of her friends. The fact that its days are numbered only increased her desire to make Eko Kitchen a more permanent presence in the city.

“I had no idea about the lack of diversity in San Francisco before I got here. It’s said to be one of the most diverse cities in the world, but it’s diverse for white people, I’m sorry to say,” she said. “That’s the truth. You will see people of every gender identity here but to actually see a group of brown-skinned people in this city is like a unicorn sighting to me.”

The future is still unfolding for Eko Kitchen. This pivot into a permanent entity in the food scene is the first chapter. Eventually, she wants it to develop into a prominent space for Nigerian culture in the Bay Area, Adebajo said. From there, those are steps she will have to figure out, she said.

“People always talk about doing ‘that thing.’ The ‘thing’ of leaving a job to pursue a dream,” Adamolekun said. “She’s actually doing that thing.”

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips