San Francisco’s Isla Vida, the last of the city’s prominent Afro-Caribbean restaurants, has closed.

The shutdown happened quietly at the end of July, less than a year after Isla Vida opened its doors in the historically black Fillmore neighborhood. According to chef and co-owner Jay Foster, operating costs became too much for the business.

“Much love to the community we were just starting to love. (Isla Vida) has ended prematurely and we wanna say thanks for the open arms and open hearts,” Foster said in a text message. “We buckled and eventually gave way to the weight of costs.”

Isla Vida, which Foster and his business partners Matthew Washington and Erin Traylor opened in October, was plagued by financial woes during its time at 1325 Fillmore St. The extent was revealed in May when the owners launched an Indiegogo campaign with a “flexible” $65,000 goal, all of which was designated to help the business pay rent and fund the implementation of a food delivery service.

The campaign ended up raising $3,347. For Washington and Foster, the fundraiser was a last-ditch effort to keep the business open.

Isla Vida was a unique addition to the local dining scene when it debuted in 2018 as a hybrid full-service and counter-service operation. Alongside Mid-Market’s Kaya, which closed in May, it represented a new wave of Caribbean restaurants in the city — not to mention it was a new black-owned business in the historically black Fillmore neighborhood.

Having taken over the former home of Black Bark, a barbecue restaurant, Isla Vida also inherited the previous tenant’s business issues. During Isla Vida’s fundraising campaign, co-owner Matthew Washington said like Black Bark before them, light foot traffic in the area meant the crowds at Isla Vida were small. The food was popular, he said, but it didn’t result in the seats being filled on a regular basis.

With Isla Vida closing, Foster’s remaining local culinary footprint is at the San Francisco International Airport where he operates an outpost of Farmerbrown. The soul food restaurant’s flagship location spent 13 years in the Tenderloin before closing in late 2018.

As for what’s next, Foster said now is “a good time to do nothing for a little while.”

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