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Bi-Rite is opening a fourth store in San Francisco, following\u00a0its newest outpost in Russian Hill, pictured above in 2024.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Fanjoy\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
For years, people who live on the west side of San Francisco have been clamoring for an outpost of cult favorite grocery store Bi-Rite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Come 2027, they\u2019ll get one.<\/p>\n
Bi-Rite\u2019s fourth store will open next year in the Outer Richmond at 6001 California St., co-CEO Patrick Mills said. It\u2019s taking over the former 6001 California Market at the corner of California Street and 22nd Avenue. \u201cWe\u2019ve been hearing for years, people have been wanting us to come out there,\u201d Mills said. \u201cI see this location as a chance to be stewards of a small, neighborhood grocery business that serves the immediate neighborhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Fans can expect \u201cthe\u00a0Bi-Rite experience,\u201d Mills said: pristine produce from local farms, along with groceries, prepared foods, housemade ice cream, meat and seafood counters, and more. The new Bi-Rite will be similar in size to the Divisadero Street store, with roughly 2,500 square feet of shopping space. It will offer the most outdoor seating of any location, thanks to the large sidewalks in front of the corner building. The store will sell new items that will roll out soon at other Bi-Rites, including housemade pastries and sushi.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mills hopes the store will service the Outer and Inner Richmond, as well as Seacliff. \u201cThe Richmond just seems to be teeming with life<\/a>,\u201d he said, pointing to the nearby Sunday Clement Street Farmers Market and dining destinations such as Breadbelly<\/a> and Pearl 1601. Neighborhood groups have long asked Bi-Rite to come to the area, even going so far as to send real estate listings. Interest in the new store has been feverish, including news reports of its arrival before the lease was finalized<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bi-Rite has taken over the space previously occupied by the 6001 California Market in the Outer Richmond District.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Google Street View<\/p>\n The California Street building was built in 1917 and has a long history of operating as a family-run grocery store, Mills said, such as Appel & Dietrich Fine Food Market (whose red neon sign<\/a> he hopes to preserve in some way). Bi-Rite is completely renovating the aging space, which has sat vacant for about two years, including building a full kitchen to fuel the store\u2019s popular prepared and hot foods. Unlike the other Bi-Rite stores on major commercial corridors, this one is in a largely residential neighborhood.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Bi-Rite, whose history reaches back to 1940 in the Mission District, is one of San Francisco\u2019s most popular\u00a0\u2014 and expensive<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 grocery stores, known for stocking artisan products, local produce and quality prepared foods. Joe and Bill Cordano built the original 18th Street market in 1940, and Jack and Ned Mogannam purchased it in 1964, according to a history on Bi-Rite\u2019s website.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sam Mogannam, who grew up working with his father and uncle in the market and went on to become a chef, took over the 18th Street location in 1998 and added a kitchen, kicking off Bi-Rite\u2019s transformation into the farm-to-table food destination it is today. Bi-Rite often partners with local chefs<\/a>, including by selling their products.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bi-Rite later expanded with nearby ice cream<\/a> shop, Bi-Rite Creamery; a now-closed Civic Center caf\u00e9<\/a>; and the second store, on Divisadero Street in the NoPa neighborhood, in 2013. In 2024, Bi-Rite opened its largest store yet, on Russian Hill<\/a>, also in what had been a longtime neighborhood market, Real Food Co.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, Bi-Rite leadership wrote a 10-year vision for the business, including a goal to open two new stores in the Bay Area. The California Street store is the first phase; they\u2019re still looking for another location and have considered cities in the East, North and South Bay, Mills said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bi-Rite is known for its\u00a0curated selection of local food products and high-quality produce.<\/p>\n Benjamin Fanjoy\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n The vision also includes a future effort to address food insecurity in San Francisco. There are commitments to internal work culture and benefits, including promoting 90% of positions from within and offering staff an $2,200 educational stipend to learn English or Spanish. Bi-Rite currently employs 330 people\u00a0\u2014 which will grow by 75 when the California Street store opens\u00a0\u2014 and has low turnover rates, said co-CEO Brianne O\u2019Leary Gagnon. Managers work there for about 11 years on average and cashiers, about three years, \u201cwhich is in this industry a very long time,\u201d O\u2019Leary Gagnon said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As part of Bi-Rite\u2019s vision plan, another major shift is underway: passing the family-run business to new hands. Over the last year, Mogannam and business partner Calvin Tsay have stepped away from the day-to-day operations, which are now overseen by Mills and Gagnon. (Mogannam remains an owner and is still involved in some parts of the business, including the opening of the new store.)<\/p>\n Gagnon worked in legal recruiting and human resources before joining Bi-Rite in 2018 as director of people and culture. Mills is a Bi-Rite lifer: He started working at the grocer\u2019s deli, slicing meat and making sandwiches, nearly 20 years ago. Mogannam lured him to San Francisco from Zingerman\u2019s Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Mills was working at the time. They met at a seminar at Zingerman\u2019s, another grocer with a storied past, about \u201cbusinesses that choose to be great instead of big,\u201d Mills said.<\/p>\n Bi-Rite\u2019s expansion has followed that philosophy: They are committed to remaining independently owned, and have taken on no outside investments, Mills said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to move up and down the Pacific Coast,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just want to do something great in the Bay Area.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bi-Rite is opening a fourth store in San Francisco, following\u00a0its newest outpost in Russian Hill, pictured above in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[413,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-283705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-food","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","11":"tag-san-francisco-news","12":"tag-sf","13":"tag-sf-headlines","14":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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