Guests and host Leslie Sbrocco tape the sixth episode of Season 8 of Check, Please! Bay Area at KQED.
Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Check, Please! Bay Area’s sixth episode of Season 8 airs on Thursday May 16 at 7:30pm on KQED 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website provides restaurant information not specified on the show and you are free to share your opinions on the restaurants featured. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will continue to share wine (and spirits) tips with each episode.

The sixth episode of Season 8 features these restaurants: Hunan Home’s Restaurant (San Francisco), Radius Restaurant and Café (San Francisco) and Guerilla Café (Berkeley).

Fun in the greenroom after taping the sixth episode of Season 8 of Check, Please! Bay Area at KQED. Lyrics Born autographs Leslie’s foot. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Watch Leslie Sbrocco share her Wine Tips about Santa Barbara County Wines:

View more Wine Tips at Check, Please! Bay Area.

SHED exterior facade

What would a locavore’s paradise in wine country look like? For a certain type of well-heeled agrarian, a whole lot like SHED, Healdsburg’s 21st-century grange, grocery, farm store, cafe, bar and event space.

Healdsburg SHED exterior

At first glance, it looks like the prettiest airplane hanger you’ve ever been in, with its huge, boxy shape and garage-style doors, all metal and glass. Grab the handle of that spade doubling as a door handle, step inside, and the enormous space resolves itself into a luxuriously uncrowded farm-to-table playground.

But first, grab a cappuccino from the coffee bar front and center, because everything looks rosier with a foam heart in hand. Admire the spotless white marble counters, the equally pristine bunches of frilly lettuce, the baskets of fresh-from-the-farm eggs, ecru to aqua.

Tall, pale wooden shelves display crayon-bright Japanese coffee pots and Spanish earthenware casseroles. On a wide slab of salvaged sycamore dubbed the “story table,” massive flower arrangements worthy of a Dutch still life spill their blossoms over an educational display of German-made alternative beehives.

Bee Table at SHED

Afternoon sunshine lights up the Dutch and English gardening tools hanging on the walls, glowing across the copper jam pots and hand-carved wooden tortilla presses. It all feels like a Kinfolk magazine spread come to life and tastefully available for purchase. That soft-as-ricotta, brown-as-molasses yarn? Spun from gentle black sheep. The house-fermented cider vinegar? Tap it from the barrel, if you’ve remembered to bring your own bottle. Nothing is made of plastic; nothing has a plug.

Vinegar barrels at SHED

This is not make-do, duct-tape DIY; everything here, from the beakers of fruit shrubs (sweet-tart, vinegar-based drinks, infused with fresh fruit and fizzed with soda water) and bright-magenta beet kvass at the fermentation bar to the galvanized buckets of peonies and the baskets loaded with chocolate-brown loaves of bread the size of watermelons has been curated with an eye for beauty, taste, and usefulness.

Take butter, for example, so necessary with those huge loaves from M.H. Bread and Butter. (Baker Nathan Yanko used to work with bread star Chad Robertson at Tartine in the Mission, so his loaves are as close as the wine country gets to Robertson’s cult-status levains.) Some half-dozen types of butter–cow, goat, sea salted and packed into ceramic crocks–reside in the dairy case. But is that too easy for you? Then pick up a bottle of organic cream, a hand-cranked German butter-making jar, and a couple of wooden butter paddles for shaping the result into decorative pats. What else could you have to do?

Duck into the cleaning nook nearby and you’ll find all the necessaries for fulfilling those downstairs Downton Abbey fantasies: plumy ostrich-feather dusters with 40-inch handles, perfect for polishing chandeliers; crooked hand-carved broomsticks, possibly too witchy to pass muster with Mrs. Hughes but absolutely Quidditch-ready; wooden scrub brushes of which even Mr. Carson would approve, with nary an electric toaster in sight.

SHED co-owner Cindy Daniel

SHED is the vision of owners Doug and Cindy Daniel, who created it as a celebration of Sonoma’s agricultural heritage, as a place where all kinds of crops are grown and products made, not just the wine that puts in on the map. The Daniels provide much of the vegetables, flowers, fruit, and eggs on display from their own 16 acres in the Dry Creek Valley, which they’ve dubbed HomeFarm, where 11 acres are under mixed organic and biodynamic cultivation, and the other 5 as native riparian habitat. They have Rhone-varietal grapes growing for wine, French olive trees for oil, chickens, sheep, bees, heirloom-variety orchards, including curiosities like medlars, jujubes, and pineapple guavas, plus a market garden for vegetables and cut flowers. “It’s a patchwork of things that are all related,” says Cindy, much like the store she and her husband have created.

Mill at SHED

She’s particularly proud of the milling room, where small batches of locally grown, mostly heirloom strains of wheat and other grains are ground into flour every few days. (Most of the flour is sold in the shop; a portion of it goes to M.H. Butter for use in their breads.) The shop is also a pick-up point for grainshare subscribers to the Mendocino Grain Project, a CSA for locally grown grains, including wheat, oats, rye, and barley. Inspired by Native Seeds’ week-long Seed School workshop, Cindy found herself ever more interested in promoting Sonoma’s foodshed and encouraging self-sufficiency in the face of evolving climate change and energy crises. “There used to be a grain mill in Healdsburg,” she notes, glad to be reviving one of the area’s agricultural traditions, even if just on a home cook’s scale.

Larder at SHED

Nearby, the cool larder is “a room that talks about process,” as Cindy says, where customers can peer through the glass wall at wooden shelves filled with pickles and krauts fermenting, and cheeses and cured meats aging.

Hearth at SHED

It could hardly be a true 21st-century kitchen without a live fire burning somewhere, and so, of course, flames flicker in the hearth behind the open kitchen where chef Niki Ford oversees a daily-changing menu of eclectic breakfast and lunch fare. The heavy lifting of the kitchen gets done upstairs, in an additional production space off the main event room. The designer of Boulette’s Larder in the Ferry Building consulted, and it shows: the spacious, pristine kitchen is lavished with All-Clad saucepans hanging from racks above the counters, while tall woven baskets bristle with whisks as long as shinbones and massive stock pots steam on the stove.

Production Kitchen at SHED

In the morning, locals and visitors alike can perch at one of the blond-wood tables in the open cafe area, waiting for bowls of fiber-rich hot porridge slow-cooked overnight to reach a texture described by Ford as “between gruel and chewy grains,” lavished with butter, sea salt, and damson plum jam. Those that haven’t yet foresworn gluten can treat themselves to a “toast service” of thick slabs of Yanko’s bread, toasted with butter, jam by local “jamstress” Elissa Rubin-Mahon, and housemade chocolate-hazelnut spread, or dig into “Doug’s poached eggs” over toast with oregano, sea salt, and a drizzle of HomeFarm balsamic vinegar and olive oil. A Persian breakfast, inspired by the cooking of an Iranian friend of Ford’s, is a mix-and-match assortment of feta cheese, walnuts, sour cherry jam, herbs, and more of that great bread.

Fermentation Bar at SHED

Coming in at the civilized, city-brunch hour of 1pm, we’re sorry to have missed the 11am cutoff for Ford’s heirloom-grain waffles with quince jam and maple syrup. Instead, glasses of blueberry shrub in hand, we plunge straight into the savory side, with a briny bowl of clams bathed in cilantro and cream. A previous menu offered flatbread topped with nettles, cardoons, preserved lemon and local Highway 1 cheese, but today’s offering is as straightforward as any 5 year old could desire: a pizza with tomato sauce and cheese, on a pleasantly puffy-chewy crust. At the fermentation bar–which pours not only both wine and beer on tap but kefir, kombucha, kvass, and cider–we catch up with Ellen Cavalli and Scott Heath of Tilted Shed Ciderworks, who are lunching with their young son. The bar serves their ciders, and also ferments some of it into cider vinegar, using it as a base for the shrubs and offering it in bulk from a barrel on the other side of the store.

Ford, who shares a Chez Panisse pedigree (and friendship) with Suzanne Drexhange of Bartavelle, also shares a fondness for hand-carved boards laid out with savory deliciousness. Around us, many diners are nibbling the ploughman’s lunch, generous slabs of Fiscalini cheddar from Modesto, rye bread, apples, pickled onions, and chutney, or munching their way through the salads on the mezze plate, served with housemade crackers, feta, and olives. Nettle soup is greener than grass, bold as fresh money. “We want to make a lot of room for grains, legumes, vegetables, roots,” says Ford. “There’s a lot of sophistication in making vegetables.” It’s all part of an appreciation for “what we have in our hands, being thoughtful about the ingredients,” an attitude that Ford hopes the cooks will learn to share even during busy moments on the line, all deepened by the relationships they’re building with the farmers and gardeners supplying the kitchen.

The Daniels have plans for frequent events upstairs; already, they’ve hosted Deborah Madison in conversation with local food writer and author Michele Anna Jordan about Madison’s new book, Vegetable Literacy; sponsored a showing of Queen of the Sun, a documentary about the global bee crisis; and hosted a three-course, family-style Sunday Supper featuring the produce and farmers from Bernier Farms. On May 18, bring your knives and brush up on your Knife Skills with Rian Rinn. On May 26, there will be an all-American family-style Sunday Supper out on the patio with live music. And on June 8, butcher Rinn will be hosting Hog It Up, a hog butchery demo & pop-up dinner with chefs Ian Mullen and Jason Smith of Mullen & Smith.

Information:
Healdsburg SHED
Address: Map
25 North St
Healdsburg, CA 95448
Phone: (707) 431-7433
Hours: Mon-Sun 7am-7pm
Facebook: Healdsburg SHED
Twitter: @healdsburgshed

Guests and host Leslie Sbrocco tape the fifth episode of Season 8 of Check, Please! Bay Area at KQED.
Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Check, Please! Bay Area’s fifth episode of Season 8 airs on Thursday May 9 at 7:30pm on KQED 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website provides restaurant information not specified on the show and you are free to share your opinions on the restaurants featured. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will continue to share wine (and spirits) tips with each episode.

The fifth episode of Season 8 features these restaurants: Bocanova (Oakland), Willi’s Wine Bar (Santa Rosa) and The Rotunda of Neiman Marcus (San Francisco).

Watch Leslie Sbrocco share her Wine Tips about Wines of Washington State:

View more Wine Tips at Check, Please! Bay Area.

Guests and host Leslie Sbrocco tape the fourth episode of Season 8 of Check, Please! Bay Area at KQED.

Check, Please! Bay Area’s fourth episode of Season 8 airs on Thursday May 2 at 7:30pm on KQED 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website provides restaurant information not specified on the show and you are free to share your opinions on the restaurants featured. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will continue to share wine (and spirits) tips with each episode.

The fourth episode of Season 8 features these restaurants: Pompei’s Grotto (San Francisco), Lillie Mae’s House of Soul Food (Santa Clara) and SPQR (San Francisco).

Host Leslie Sbrocco and guests from Check, Please! Bay Area relax in KQED’s greenroom

Watch Leslie Sbrocco share her Wine Tips about Napa Valley Wines:

View more Wine Tips at Check, Please! Bay Area.

Guests and host Leslie Sbrocco tape the third episode of Season 8 of Check, Please! Bay Area at KQED.
Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Check, Please! Bay Area’s third episode of Season 8 airs on Thursday April 25 at 7:30pm on KQED 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website provides restaurant information not specified on the show and you are free to share your opinions on the restaurants featured. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will continue to share wine (and spirits) tips with each episode.

The third episode of Season 8 features these restaurants: Maverick (San Francisco), Izakaya Yuzuki (San Francisco) and Souk Savanh (Oakland).

Watch Leslie Sbrocco share her Wine & Spirits Tips about Sake:

View more Wine Tips at Check, Please! Bay Area.

Caitlin Freeman. Photo: Charles Villyard

Andy Warhol as Jell-O, Jeff Koons as a gilded white hot chocolate, and Cindy Sherman as a pink ice cream float dusted with glitter are just a few of the edible art concepts cooked up by Caitlin Freeman, an artist who creates confections and fancy snacks based on special exhibitions at SFMOMA. Her new book, “Modern Art Desserts,” details recipes and stories from her self-made dream job: responding to art through food.

Freeman co-owned Miette pastry shops before opening the Blue Bottle Coffee bar at SFMOMA’s rooftop garden with her husband James. From Miette, she brought along artist and pastry chef Leah Rosenberg, and assistant Tess Wilson. The team’s desserts are innovative, creative and sometimes controversial. A cookie plate inspired by Richard Serra’s massive steel sculptures is likely the first dessert to have ever received a cease and desist letter.

Click on any photo to view full-sized images and activate the slideshow

Freeman credits painter Wayne Thiebaud with inspiring her to become a baker, and says the book is a love letter to him. Her favorite cakes to bake are buttercream party cakes, and that’s exactly what Thiebaud is known for painting. The two cake-loving artists haven’t met yet, but Freeman throws a birthday party for him every year at the cafe. Besides her most popular cakes modeled after works by Thiebaud and Piet Mondrian, 70 modern art desserts have been created over the past four years. Textile artist Ruth Laskey’s two-color weavings became conceptual sodas where flavors were assigned to each color, creating combinations like lemon soda with bay ice cubes, and bubblegum soda (made from Dubble Bubble gum concentrate) with violet ice cubes. Freeman was interested in the overlap between colors and flavors, a concept that went through some trial and error when she focused on Andy Warhol’s self portrait in green, blue, red, and yellow. She tried to make a Bloody Mary gelée and explains, “I didn’t want to use food coloring but I figured we could use blue curacao. We made Campbell’s tomato soup Jell-O, celery, horseradish and Worcester Jell-O, and it was revolting. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but that was the one recipe that didn’t really work out.” Her aversion to food coloring had to be overcome for her Mondrian cake, a chocolate ganache grid with primary-colored cake blocks, but she’s not the only one who is wary of unnatural-looking cake dye. She says, “People easily gobble up the yellow and red, but often they’ll leave the blue square on the plate.”

Dessert is based on Garry Winogrand’s “Kerrville, Texas” (1977). Photo: Willa Koerner.

Freeman’s latest concoction, inspired by a Gary Winogrand photograph, is an ambitious multimedia project. As she describes it, “The piece we chose is these two people dancing on a platform that looks just like an ice cream cake. So we’re making this ridiculous multimedia cake that involves Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” playing from an MP3 player inside the plate, which happened to be the number seventeen song the year the photo was taken, and looks exactly like the song they would’ve been dancing to. We’ll have two images laser-cut as cake toppers that will be dancing on the cake.” The desserts are often conceptual, and sometimes literal, like the Jasper Johns-inspired grilled cheese that looks like his piece, Bread. As Freeman describes the project, “The piece is a lead panel with a piece of bread on it, so we made a grilled cheese and served it on a to-scale board painted to look like lead. It was a giant, oversized board people would have to carry back to their table.” She likes that her creations can help make the art more accessible, and says that when she walks into a gallery of California painters, “especially Diebenkorn and Thiebaud,” she often wants to take the paintings home, and says:

“Making desserts is my way of owning something, of really pretending that I’m stealing it, and making it my own.”

“Modern Art Desserts” was released this month by Ten Speed Press. Freeman’s Mondrian cakes will soon be available for purchase online (available for delivery, packed in dry ice). Keep up with her projects at modernartdesserts.com.

Photos of desserts reprinted with permission from Modern Art Desserts: Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, Confections, and Frozen Treats Based on Iconic Works of Art, by Caitlin Freeman, copyright (c) 2013. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc. Photo credit: Clay McLachlan (c) 2013

Guests and host Leslie Sbrocco tape the second episode of Season 8 of Check, Please! Bay Area at KQED. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Check, Please! Bay Area’s second episode of Season 8 airs on Thursday April 18 at 7:30pm on KQED 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website provides restaurant information not specified on the show and you are free to share your opinions on the restaurants featured. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will continue to share wine (and spirits) tips with each episode.

The second episode of Season 8 features these restaurants: Zaré at Fly Trap (San Francisco), Barrio Fiesta Restaurant (Milpitas) and Flora (Oakland).

Watch Leslie Sbrocco share her Wine & Spirits Tips about Whiskey:

View more Wine Tips at Check, Please! Bay Area.

Guests and host Leslie Sbrocco taping the 100th episode of Check, Please! Bay Area at KQED.
Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Check, Please! Bay Area’s 100th episode kicks off Season 8 on Thursday April 11 at 7:30pm on KQED 9. View other airtimes and channels.

You can watch individual restaurant segments as well as view the entire episode online. The website provides restaurant information not specified on the show and you are free to share your opinions on the restaurants featured. This season, Leslie Sbrocco will continue to share wine tips with each episode.

The first episode of Season 8 features these San Francisco restaurants: Angkor Borei, Indigo Restaurant and Farallon.

Watch Leslie Sbrocco share her Wine Tips about California Wine Regions:

View more Wine Tips at Check, Please! Bay Area.

Michael Siegel, owner of Shorty Goldstein’s

First, the name. Wince-worthy as it seemed on first hearing, owner Michael Siegel came by it honestly: Shorty was the nickname of his great-grandmother, Pauline Goldstein, and no Jewish deli-meister can hope for success without paying hommage to his bubbe. Born in Tucson, Arizona, Siegel, who worked as a chef de cuisine at Betelnut for 5 years before jumping into restaurant ownership this year, grew up on the Jewish comfort food made by his Philadelphia and New York-bred relatives. Every year, “Shorty” would come visit for a month, enlisting the young Michael as her helper in rolling and stuffing the dozens of potato knishes she’d make for the family. Afterwards, Siegel’s grandmother would dole them out, one at a time, making them last.

Throughout his culinary career, through training in French, Mediterranean, and Asian cuisines, Siegel kept returning, in his mind, to the familiar briskets, latkes, and stuffed cabbages of his youth. And now, here they are, only done with a San Francisco spin, so that the cauliflower and beets are pickled in-house, the chopped chicken livers are packed in jam jars, and the rugulach are filled with apples and cardamom or strawberries and black pepper. (The small, fluffy knishes, however, are true to their originals.) So far, it’s working: open for breakfast and lunch weekdays only in the Financial District, Shorty’s has been enviably busy since its opening day.

Front counter at Shorty Goldstein’s

During the first week, the line of suits and skirts-and-heels stretched back past the door by the dozens. Always curious about the next new thing–and never one to turn down the chance of tasty pastrami without the need for a plane ticket to New York or LA–we grabbed a counterside seat next to two nice ladies of a certain age. They were the kind who, in my New Jersey youth, would have been ace rugelach bakers active in the synagogue sisterhood. Here, they were enjoying a corned beef sandwich and a tongue sandwich (a Thursday-only special), respectively. This being San Francisco, there’s just no way to relate their enthusiasm for the tongue sandwich without it sounding irredeemably but unintentionally dirty, so I won’t try, but suffice it say, it was a nice tongue sandwich, very much appreciated.

Although there’s room for tables in the wood-floored, chalkboard-walled room, seats are limited to metal stools ranged along narrow counters clinging to the edges of the exposed brick walls. Despite friendly servers and pleasant amenities–cutlery with a nice heft to it, a tall glass dispenser of spa-like cucumber-mint water–the setup that doesn’t encourage lingering, or ordering more than can fit in a single-plate line in front of you.

Chocolate egg cream and Corned Beef sandwich

According to Siegel, their house-cured pastrami is their top seller, outselling even the popular corned beef two to one. And, like the corned beef, it’s some good stuff, flavorful and moist, maybe cut a little too thick, not quite as magically spicy/fatty/umami-fantastic as Wise Sons’, but still an excellent reason to leave your desk. (They’ll also double the meat, should you need the full mouth-stretching, Carnegie-Deli experience.) If only the bread were better. This beige, fluffy stuff hardly tastes of rye, and there’s not a caraway seed in sight. Why not Semifreddi’s Odessa Rye, or Acme Bread’s New York Rye? After all, if the kitchen’s going to all the trouble to make the Fridays-only tuna salad from super-scratch, using seared fresh albacore bound with house-made mayonnaise loaded with dill, red onions and celery, it should be embraced by bread that’s worthy.

Chopped Chicken Liver, Toast and Pickled Baby Fennel

The bread is certainly better toasted, when small squares serve as a delivery vehicle for a jar of satisfyingly dense chopped chicken-liver spread, paired with surprisingly elegant wisps of pickled baby fennel.

Since the open kitchen at the back of the restaurant has only a small flattop grill, making toasted sandwiches by the hundreds isn’t an option; so far, the only hot sandwiches are the daily grilled cheese along with Wednesday’s Rachel, which Siegel describes as a sister to the Reuben, made with pastrami, cole slaw, and Swiss.

Open Kitchen at Shorty Goldstein’s

There’s a very nice looking bowl of chicken soup with matzoh balls, although we were still having too much of a matzoh hangover from the past 8 days of Passover to try it. And while Shorty’s is no Gracias Madre, there is a daily vegetarian soup (potato-green garlic on a recent visit), the aforementioned grilled cheese and veggie sandwich, a well-stocked farmer’s market salad (recently, baby lettuces, artichoke, avocado and Midnight Moon gouda, in a raisin-molasses dressing) and a pickle plate (currently, some pleasantly crisp cauliflower, tender asparagus and regrettably mushy, over-vinegared beets).

But enough of that. How’s the egg cream? An egg cream, I must point out to you kombucha-swilling West Coasters, contains neither eggs nor cream. Essentially, it’s an ice cream soda with no ice cream, made with a few fingers of chocolate syrup (purists swear by Brooklyn-born Fox’s U-Bet) and milk foamed into a frothy, bubbly drink by a powerful jet of seltzer. Seltzer that’s released, properly, from a glass siphon bottle, not a soda gun or worse, a screw-top bottle of lazy sparkling water. A real egg cream needs a sting behind it, the bubbles crisp and sharp on your tongue; otherwise, you might as well be drinking Yoo-hoo. So far, no one in the Bay Area gets it right, to my taste–they’re always too flat, too rich, too chocolatey-sweet.

Salted Caramel Egg Cream

Information:
Facebook: Shorty Goldstein’s
Twitter: @SGoldsteins
Address: Map
126 Sutter St
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: (415) 986-2676
Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm

The Fizzary owners Taylor Peck and Aaron Dolson. Photo courtesy of Cassie Destino/The Fizzary

The duo is a NorCal success story, and have the words “San Francisco/Santa Cruz” emblazoned on each Taylor’s Tonics bottle. They use Square for payments at The Fizzary and received a visit from Square Grand Poobah Jack Dorsey recently, who brought a camera crew along. Back in 2009, Peck embarked on a quest to make organic fizzy treats. With a little seed money provided by San Francisco based David Rio Tea Company, Peck and Dolson joined forces and Taylor’s Tonics Botanical Soda Kitchen was created. The product line is sold for $2 a bottle at the Fizzary (like all the other products there) and has elixirs that includes Chai Cola, Mate’ Mojito, and a holiday collection. Taylor’s Tonics did steady business at last month’s Fancy Food Show, and can be found in 40 states and 600 retail locations.

Array of beverages at The Fizzary Photo: Steve Murdock

Peck said the Fizzary exists “to bring as many independent, domestic brands as possible under one roof for retail display.” He has helped folks who are new to the soda and retail world in a “pay it forward” style that fits his outgoing personality. Bay Area Bites caught up with these young soda kings to find out about their new business, what soda’s they recommend and their thoughts on anti-soda legislation. Their comments have been edited for content and clarity.

Bay Area Bites: Why do the Fizzary in San Francisco? Or even in the Mission District?
Peck: We started in Santa Cruz as a tea company and wanted a little more taste of the big city. So we moved the whole operation up here. David Rio helped us finance our Chai Cola and we ran the soda line out of a suite near Rainbow Grocery. Then we were at 7th and Brannan but that burned down. So we set up operations in Bayshore temporarily.

We looked for property in SOMA and Mission exclusively. This location couldn’t be more perfect. We appreciate Valencia and the deep Mission and knew we had a stand-alone ‘go-to’ destination. Our plan was to turn into a brewing area for our herbal concentrates and have the public see the process and the treats we have in here. We needed foot traffic, visibility and a minimally industrial showroom workshop. It was literally a long run. There has been a lot of turnover on this something of a sleepy block. We’ve gotten a very warm reception with our neighbors and we are very outgoing and colorful. This space gives us a little more opportunity to shine with our DIY vibe rather than being somewhere in Fisherman’s Wharf, Valencia Street or Union Square.

The Fizzary exterior. Photo: Cassie Destino

Bay Area Bites: You had plans to use this as an event space. Is that still the case?
Peck: Yes and no. We have a bottling workshop and are able to do events for 100 people or so that are much more specialized and custom. The event needs to be able to integrate well into our production space in back. There is definitely room for both but it is not just an open conference space. If you want to do a performance by a giant steel kettle, that’ll work here. Having uplit LED lights on our apparatus is actually pretty cool, and we’ve done that since moving here. There can be a bar set up back there and folks can start with a soda up front with us.

Bay Area Bites: What are your bestsellers? What’s best for daytime sipping versus nighttime?
Dolson: People like the uncategorized and the unique: cucumber, ouzo, rhubarb, red hot, Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray, butterscotch, and even bug barf. People also shop based on the look of the label, whether it is antique or generic.

Peck: I have to recommend Taylor’s Tonics, Café Azteca and Espresso Cola—-our shop is set up to subtly recommend our product line. Joia all natural soda from Minnesota is more like a fruit drink. Root beer and ginger ale are absolutely the top sellers. We intentionally set up the space so root beer and ginger ale are on different sides. You can see on the weekends how people split, with root beer over there and ginger ale over there.

Dolson: For daytime sipping, some people come here right when we open for Dr. Pepper to start the day. There is Dublin Dr. Pepper, which is special. We bought the last pallet of them.

Bay Area Bites: Are there any sodas that have potential aphrodisiac properties and would good for dates and special occasions like Valentine’s Day?
Peck: There’s Nexcite, which is a Swedish love potion. Love Potion No. 69 also works!

Bay Area Bites: You had a booth at the Fancy Food Show and BAB’s Stephanie Hua covered your “Untraditional Sodas.” How did the show go? Had you been before?
Peck: We had not gone as exhibitors but had been there as attendees for many years. The show is in our backyard and we talked to a lot of people and had good sales. The natural food products show in Anaheim is our main show.

Fizzary at SF Fancy Food Show. Photo: Stephanie Hua

Bay Area Bites: How do most of your customers find the shop?
Peck: I’ve been surprised at how many people have searched us out. We get 60 percent foot and 40 percent destination shoppers. That’s a testament to food bloggers who wrote about us when we first opened — everyone came to visit from that. We don’t take anything for granted. We had a national wholesale operation for four years yet our media coverage now is far more than anything during those years.

Bay Area Bites: What is the sugar content of your Taylor’s Tonics?
Peck: All have unrefined organic sugar cane and a small dose of stevia to get the sugar level down and keep the drink to under ten calories. About two years ago it would’ve been 50-50. We have a lot of transition batches in the shop where folks are cycling through and getting sugar used. Our sugar price went up for organic from 60 cents to now a $1.30 a pound, which is a complete reaction to the consumer. We joke that we shot ourselves in the foot. The upside is we are stuck in the same boat with our competitors.

The Fizzary’s Sweets. Photo: Aaron Dolson

Bay Area Bites: How do you feel about the proposed soda tax and move against sodas in Richmond, CA and New York state?
Peck: We’re not opposed to it. Soda is a luxury, an indulgence. I drink copious amounts of it. I think the legislation is wisely written to tax over a certain ounce. I don’t believe it should be vilified. It’s an indulgence – when you attack based on sugar and carbonation, just think about some unfiltered apple juice that has more sugar for comparison. The informed consumer is able to enjoy what’s in the shop. We set up our model to be a four pack. At the same time you can’t get a mixed pack like that at Safeway. We’re not so afraid of the legislation. The only time you get more than 12 ounces here, you’re paying for it. We offer sugar free and other options. The legislation changes will affect the corner bodega or Safeway more.

Related Information:
The Fizzary
Address: Map
2949 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
(877) 368-4608

Twitter: @TheFizzary
Facebook: The Fizzary