Rize Up Bakery’s (opens in new tab) sourdough has appeared on the menus of famed Bay Area restaurants and at farmers markets across the city. Soon, fans of these crusty, chewy, and occasionally colorful loaves will be able to get them straight from the oven.
Founder Azikiwee “Z” Anderson’s says he’s converting Rize Up’s SoMa production kitchen from a wholesale-only facility to one with a public-facing retail component. The full cafe will be up and running in time for his birthday, July 7.
Anderson envisions a space with a full coffee program — the roaster is to be determined — alongside a food menu that highlights Rize Up’s various sourdoughs, which include flavors like sesame-scallion, garlic-thyme, gochujang, masala, and bright-purple ube. That means fancy grilled cheese sandwiches, plus cookies, pastries, and Tartine-style open-faced toasts.
In less than six years, Rize Up has developed into a sizable operation that serves clients such Palm City, Flour + Water, and both The Morris and Sirene, its companion restaurant in Oakland. Anderson’s team also sells its loaves at 10 farmers markets around the Bay, from the Ferry Building to Clement Street and into the North Bay. (As of last weekend, Rize Up had a stand on Sunday mornings at Stonestown (opens in new tab).) Having started baking as a way to grapple with traumatic national events only to find himself cast in a Comcast commercial that aired during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Anderson never thought his baby would get so big, so fast.
“We really started everything ass-backwards,” he says. Though he graduated from SF Cooking School in 2018, he’d never worked in a commercial bakery. He started in his home kitchen partly in response to the 2020 killing of George Floyd, and quickly found himself with a devoted fan base — but the lack of a brick-and-mortar retail space has become a hindrance. “When you sell everything at 30% and 40% off, wholesale, you don’t make a bunch of profit,” Anderson says. “So we’re trying to right the balance.”
Bright purple ube sourdough is among Rize Up’s more creative offerings. | Source: Justin Katigbak/The Standard
Citing San Francisco bakeries Butter & Crumble and Breadbelly as models, Anderson hopes Rize Up will see similar lines out the door. Drawn by the crusty, chewy sourdough and a vocal commitment to racial justice, some 75% of his customers are there for the same thing: the round $12 O.G. loaf (opens in new tab), made from an all-organic blend of wheat, whole wheat, spelt, rye, and malted barley flours. “Toast, a sandwich, making croutons — everything gets the classic San Francisco sourdough,” Anderson says. “And when you invite people over for dinner, it’s gonna hit hard. Especially when they’ve never tried our bread before.”
There’s another advantage to opening a proper cafe rather than merely farmers markets: shelter from the elements. Inclement weather can mean a lot of unsold product, Anderson says. “A farmers market is legalized gambling,” he adds. “You bring a bunch of stuff — and if it rains, it’s like snake eyes.”