{"id":501339,"date":"2026-10-19T19:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501339\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T19:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:54:11","slug":"best-of-the-bay-2026-editors-pick-rize-up-bakery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501339\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of the Bay 2026 Editors’ Pick: Rize Up Bakery"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re celebrating\u00a0Best of the Bay 2026\u00a0<\/a>with a multitude of Editors\u2019 Picks of things we love.\u00a0Please join us at our 13th Annual Gala on October 27<\/a>\u00a0to celebrate even more!<\/p>\n

SoMa\u2019s Howard Street is looking a lot brighter these days \u2014 just look for the brilliant yellow Aaron De La Cruz mural and you\u2019ll be at Rize Up Sourdough<\/a>\u2019s new Test Kitchen Caf\u00e9<\/a> (1160 Howard Street, SF). <\/p>\n

Black-owned, SF-based bakery Rize Up was launched by Azikiwee Anderson in his own backyard in 2020\u2014it was such a lifeline to purchase bread from his doorstep in the early pandemic, and the business\u2019s provenance was especially poignant after George Floyd\u2019s murder. Anderson\u2019s operation gave an outlet to converse about what was happening in the fresh air, grieving behind our flimsy masks. <\/p>\n

While Rize Up loaves and boules are now available in a number of stores and farmers\u2019 markets in the Bay Area, it\u2019s not always easy to find more than a few of the many varieties, which may be reason in itself to visit the Test Kitchen Caf\u00e9. (My personal favorite flavors are the gochujang-spiked K-Pop and the pleasingly purple ube boule.)<\/p>\n

The cafe is located in the warehouse space that\u2019s been home to the production kitchen for four years\u2014a burglary in 2023 and a flood from a fire next door in 2024 contributed to how long it took<\/a> to open it up as a place to linger over coffee, tea, toast, and pastries made in-house. A comfy communal table and some delicate outdoor seating encourage customers to interact, which is how I found out from a departing fellow that I messed up my first visit by not getting the smoked trout toast (but I did not regret ordering a kimchi grilled cheese).<\/p>\n

Rize Up itself offers one of San Francisco\u2019s few online pay it forward<\/a> programs, where they\u2019ll bake a loaf of bread and donate it to one of their nonprofit partners in the customer\u2019s name for $10.<\/p>\n

\"\"Relaxing at the Rize Up Test Kitchen Cafe. Photo by Tamara Palmer<\/p>\n

\u201cStepping off a dirty greyhound bus was a single mother with 3 small children in tow. Searching for a new life and a roof for her family for the night with nothing in her wallet. This was my arrival to San Francisco,\u201d Anderson wrote on the company website. It was 1980, and his family had left their home in New Orleans. He was five-years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally a battered women\u2019s shelter in San Francisco provided us that roof and support we so desperately needed,\u201d he continued. \u201cAfter several more months they helped us find our footing and more permanent housing. The kindness we experienced during this time really helped to shape me into the person, father, brother, husband, and business owner I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rize Up is truly a tale of rising up with the community to success. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re celebrating\u00a0Best of the Bay 2026\u00a0with a multitude of Editors\u2019 Picks of things we love.\u00a0Please join us at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-501339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501339","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=501339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}