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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPUBLIC_MARKET111111111 lilI 111111111111 PUBLIC MARKET VABOW PUBLIC MARKET Marketing Package Presented by: Lynda Boyer Ben Gary CB Richard Ellis 1840 Century Park East, Suite 700 Los Angeles, California 90067 310.550.3579 lynda.bover@cbre.com January, 2008 All Good, All Local: Oxbow Public Market LLC, a company located in the San Francisco Bay Area, specializes in designing, building, leasing, and managing artisan food and wine public markets. Recent projects include project management and leasing of the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco, which serves 70,000 visitors per week, and development of the new Oxbow Public Market, our 40,000 sf flagship concept, in Napa, CA, which opened in December of 2007. F W cc .5 V n o 2 1 iow it d 0 ,.....�.,_ Key Elements Great owner -operated local specialty food and wine retailers, growers, producers, and unique restaurants, all being served by a large common area within a dynamic public space. Like the original Farmer's Market on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco, or Pike Place Market in Seattle, an Oxbow Public Market will provide residents and visitors with a one -stop shop for best -in -class local food, drink, and dining. Local merchants offer a broad range of organic products and services not typically found in conventional or natural foods supermarkets and shopping centers. Consumers have the opportunity to buy directly from "the source" and therefore have the advantage of higher quality and fresher, cleaner products, knowledgeable experienced service personnel, and more affordable values. Specifically, Oxbow Public Markets allow increasingly discriminating consumers to buy direct from local, high -quality producers and growers on a seven day -a -week basis. Opposite: A bushel of sweet bell peppers - typical of the summer offerings found at an Oxbow Public Market farmstand showcasing the best local artisan producers. Top: Michael Mondavi's Folio is one of 22 vendors currently operating at the new Oxbow Public Market in Napa, CA. The Oxbow Concept: Great Vendors, Great Space, Great Location • building relationships with local artisans who grow or produce the food. • successfully guiding these producers into a competitive retail environment • marketing the concept to strategically compete with successful supermarkets • exploiting the demand for foods found only at local farmers' markets • making the entire experience convenient for the customer 1� IN ft-W � F► 7 r` W40 4 7 ter u mk� m Oxbow Public Market LLC is looking for suitable prime real estate to cre- ate a national network of Oxbow Public Markets. Ideally, OPM LLC will be able to identify existing, early stage projects that would benefit from the inclusion of a public market. OPM LLC would then negotiate a long-term master lease with the local developer and sublease the space to a variety of artisan food tenants and quick casual cafes. Once the public market is opened, OPM LLC would manage the operations of the market going forward. OPM LLC brings the expertise to implement the local serving con- cept, while creating a strong profitable partnerships with an experienced development team. Public Markets in general and Oxbow in particular can drive asset values for adjacent real estate and we are willing to work with other local developers to ensure remarkable and sustainable real estate investments. The specific location and opportunity will dictate the terms of an agreement. Opportunity & Criteria: Looking for a few good sites. _-r4ow Opposite: Paniculata Hydrangeas for sale at the San Francisco Farmer's Market. Top: A view of the Central Hall at the new Oxbow Public Market in Napa, CA. Right: The Olive Press at Oxbow Public Market. Each vendor has seperate electrical, plumbing, and telephone connections. Criteria • Min 20, 000 sf Max 50,000 sf • Access to substantial private or public parking • Easily accessible by foot • Minimum trade area of +500,000 • The city should not have an existing public market • Stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's should be already present • High quality restaurants and specialty food merchancts are already an important part of the community • Proximity to a highly regarded university • Water orientation (e.g. along a bay, river, lake, or canal) • Close to downtown and public transportation Almost every city with a population of greater than 500,000 is a prime can- didate for a significant public market. Oxbow Public Market LLC plans to fill the present void. In addition to San Francisco and Napa, many cities in the U.S. already have wonderful public markets. Examples include: Seattle — Pike Place Market Boston — Faneuil Hall Philadelphia — Reading Market Baltimore — Lexington Market Minneapolis — Lyndale Market Organic growers, farmers' markets, and small exurban food producers now comprise the fastest growing sector of the U.S. food economy. This con- sumer interest in artisanal local products is expanding to many associated categories as a reaction to mass production and a lack of connection to producers. Coverage of these trends is evident in local and national press outlets as well as recent best-selling books. Trends & Timing: Everyone loves a Public Market. Opposite: A reprint from the September 2005 Bon Appetit showcasing Taylor's Refresher - an Oxbow Public Market favorite. Top: Fresh Dungeness Crab - a Bay Area favorite - is typical of the local food offers available at an Oxbow Public Market. Right: The pavillion under construction which will house the Oxbow Wine Merchant & Wine Bar in Napa. Press: • Time magazine (March 12, 2007) cover story: "Forget Organic, Eat Local", and postulates that "local" food is going mainstream. • "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan has been a ma- jor best seller since publication in 2006. It provocatively asks, "What shall we have for dinner?" and high- lights the adventures of local food. • "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver is recently published, provides another exploration of eating local health- ful foods. • "Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowl- edge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back" by Ann Vileisis is a well -researched treatise that will give those interested in local and organic foods and American culinary culture plenty to chew on. CALIFORNIA WINE COUNTRY I NAPA VALLEY Napa's Oxbow Public Market redefines shopping A brave new mix: daily farmers market plus artisanal goodies and wine. By Russ Parsons Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 12, 2007 Napa, Calif. You say you want to know more about where your food comes from and how it is prepared? At Napa's new Oxbow Public Market that opens this weekend, the butcher and the baker will do their work behind windows that will allow you to observe almost every step of the preparation. And the wine will be fermented in barrels you can reach out and touch. The brainchild of Steve Carlin, who started his career by building the pioneering chain of upscale food markets Oakville Grocery and then supervised the development of the wildly popular Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco, the Oxbow market aims to do nothing less than redefine fine food shopping in the United States. Along the way, Carlin hopes to change the lives of the artisans who create the foods, and even the town of Napa itself. And maybe someday in the not -too -distant future, bring the concept to a city near you. Big dreams, to be sure. But take a walk with Carlin around the stunning modern building and you begin to think he might actually be able to pull it off. Consider some of the folks he's gotten involved. The butcher shop will be run by the Bay Area charcuterie stars of the Fatted Calf. The bread baking will be done by St. Helena's beloved Model Bakery. And the winery will be run by Michael Mondavi. Though construction will be completed this week and about half of the tenants will be open, it will be early spring before the market is fully operational. The $11-million structure rises on the banks of the Napa River, looking like some postmodern barn, all metal roof and struts and light -filled inside. Along one exterior wall are 10 small (12- by 6- foot) "farm stands" that will be occupied by local growers on both long-term and short-term leases -- like a seven -day -a -week farmers market with a rotating cast of characters. The interior of the main building is divided into 18 stalls, each from 250 to 400 square feet. This is where you'll find Mondavi's Folio Enoteca and Winery, which will initially sell only wines made locally and eventually only wines made at the market, as well as the Olive Press of Sonoma, which will offer six locally produced oils you can tap from giant metal cans, just like in Italy. There will be Five Dot Ranch's sustainably raised California beef; the Oxbow Cheese Shop, run by Kate Arding, who helped start Cowgirl Creamery; Whole Spice, a direct importer of dried herbs and spices; and Tillerman Tea, which finds and imports its own specialty teas. Carlin is negotiating a lease with a fishmonger, who will specialize in locally caught seafood. There will also be a rotisserie cooker, a Venezuelan arepa stand, a bookstore, a culinary antiques collection, a store selling plates and linens, a separate, general wine shop, and an ice cream shop. A restaurant, a coffee bar and an oyster bar are still under negotiation. In separate buildings adjacent to the main market will be the Fatted Calf's full -service butcher shop, Model Bakery and a third outlet of St. Helena's ever -popular hamburger stand Taylor's Automatic Refresher. The farmers market stands will be rented not just to professional farmers, but also to locals who might grow fruit or vegetables in their backyards. "Maybe he's got excess Meyer lemons one day out of the year, we'll try to work him in," says Carlin. "I see kids coming down here and selling stuff from their parents' gardens. It's just one more way to build community." At one time, this kind of public market set- up was the norm, but most were driven out of business by the growth of supermarkets. Today, the few that survive are again thriving, treasured by the communities they serve. The goal, Carlin says, is building another great market -- along the lines of the Ferry Building, Seattle's Pike Place and Vancouver's Granville Island -- but on a more compact scale that is more easily replicable. "There have been lots of questions about whether a developer could start a real public market," Carlin says. "Usually these kinds of places just develop on their own. But the thing that will make this work is that we've never varied from the concept of sticking with artisanal producers, people who always put the product first." One of those is the Fatted Calf, which until now has been operating at the extreme low economic end of the artisanal scale. Though its charcuterie products are considered among the best in the nation, it's been making them at a leased kitchen in San Francisco and selling them mostly out of the back of a truck at three Bay Area farmers markets. Taylor Boetticher, who owns the business with his wife, Toponia Miller, and partner Chuck Traugott, says that not only are they moving all of their production facilities to the Oxbow market and opening a retail outlet there, but they've moved their families to the area as well. "This is a really big step for us," he says, "probably the biggest we're ever going to take. But when we talked to Steve, the whole market really seemed like a good idea. We really like the whole philosophy he used in putting the tenants together. "And being part of a big marketplace is really appealing, especially since we know so many of the other people going in. They're a lot of small local companies just like us. It's not like he's building some strip mall where there's nothing but satellite versions of big chains going in." Carlin is a fountain of big ideas, and he has gotten to use most of them in building the Oxbow Public Market. From moment to moment he can shift from hard-core food fan carrying on about the finer points of his favorite artisanal producers, to urban planner talking about how the specific streetscape of his favorite corner in Berkeley influences the retail environment. Then he puts on his marketer hat and discusses the tricky art of achieving the perfect balance of tenants, of prepared food and ingredient offerings, and of tourists and locals for customers. Interspersed might be an in-depth discussion of the building of flood walls and high-tech construction. Carlin's expertise is hard-won. His career in food started in 1980 when he took a job building the wine department at Joseph Phelps' new Oakville Grocery in the heart of Napa Valley. When he left the company 20 years later, he was half -owner of a five -store chain that was grossing $20 million a year. After taking a year off to live in Tuscany, he became project manager for San Francisco's Ferry Building, and among his responsibilities was overseeing the start-up and development of the market, including the recruitment of the original tenants. One of the things he learned along the way is how difficult the transition can be from creating an artisanal product to running a retail business. But he's almost evangelical about its necessity. "Right now, the way the system is set up, retailers and middlemen make all the money, and that's what we're trying to change," Carlin says. "To do that, we have to work at teaching these producers a new trade and that is retail. "One of the most important things we have to do is teach our merchants how to make money. These are all small-business men, and a lot of them don't make much money yet. These are not your typical AAA credit tenants. But these are people who are fully committed to their products." And if these small producers can't make enough money to stay in business, they'll go away. The results, Carlin says, would be disastrous for us all. "I really believe that if we don't create a place for these producers and if we don't help them create their brands, then those brands will go away and our food supply will be more and more homogenized and bland." There certainly is little danger of blandness at Oxbow. Boetticher has all sorts of meaty visions dancing in his head -- becoming a full - service butcher will allow him to deal more with individual ranchers who raise high -quality animals but prefer to deal in whole carcasses rather than just cryovac-ed, pre -portioned cuts. This will let him do such things as offering whole suckling pigs already marinated and ready for roasting. And he's also developing a line of house - made sauerkraut and pickles to accompany the sausages and pates. That's downright tame compared to another producer, Neal Gottlieb of Three Twins Organic Ice Cream. An eco-conscious guy, he's putting in a human -powered milkshake maker (driven by pedaling a bicycle). And he's dreaming of a $3,333 ice cream sundae, made from reduced syrups of Chateau d'Yquem and vintage Port. Seemingly spontaneously, he begins talking about topping even that with a $60,000 sundae that will be made from the snow atop Mt. Kilimanjaro. "If you buy it, I'll take you there myself and bring along a hand -cranked ice cream maker." Part of the excitement that is building around the market is due to the realization that it just could be the last missing piece in the puzzle that will turn around the town of Napa. Until fairly recently, the city of Napa, which has a population of about 75,000, had been regarded as a blue-collar enclave almost totally separate from the wine country that shares its name. It was where the folks "up valley" came to buy tires but didn't linger any longer than necessary. That started to change five years ago with the opening of Copia, the "American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts," largely funded by Robert Mondavi. But that project has never really seemed to find its footing and even now is in the midst of another reinvention. Still, the area has all the earmarks of a great neighborhood for a market. Copia, which is still something of a draw with its wine and food education programs, is next door, sharing a parking lot. Across the street is the terminal for the Napa Valley Wine Train, and two new luxury hotel complexes -- a Ritz -Carlton and a Westin -- are being built within a five-minute walk. Finally, Napa, which already boasts several very good restaurants in its historic downtown area, may have built the critical mass necessary to become part of the Napa Valley tourist circuit. "Ten years from now, this whole area will be different," Carlin says. "That's what markets do in cities. They are magnets that draw people in.,, That said, Carlin makes it clear that Oxbow is not just another stop for culinary tourists -- a criticism that has sometimes been leveled at the Ferry Building. 'To be a successful public market, you have to have a mix of locals and tourists," Carlin says. "You need them both. But I'd say the long-term success of this market will depend on whether we can get support from the people of Napa." What works for Napa might well work for other cities too. Carlin is already planning a similar market in Santa Rosa and is in negotiations in Sacramento and San Jose as well as Portland, Ore., and Bellevue, Wash. And he's exploring the possibilities in other areas, including Southern California. "This market is not a business deal, it's a busi ness model," Carlin says. "The way I see this market is that it's a conduit between growers and customers and that's something that will work in lots of different places. "What Oxbow is about is creating markets in cit- ies that already have an agricultural backdrop and that already have an artisanal food scene. What we want to do is pull all of those producers together with people who care about food and are willing to support them. "I am positive that knowing where our food comes from is going to become much more im- portant over the next few years. I'm convinced that the hardest challenge we face with these markets is not building demand, it's building sup- ply. "We're at the beginning of a movement, and the communities we're talking to get that." m 0 7*0 Frequent Questions: 1. What is an Oxbow Public Market? An Oxbow Public Market is a specialty food retail mar- ketplace concept, launching in a number of major U.S. cities over the next several years. It allows knowledge- able consumers to buy direct from local, high -quality sustainable producers and growers on a seven day -a - week basis. 2. What does an Oxbow Public Market sell? Oxbow Public Market does not actually sell a product. Its vendors sell products and each of them has been selected for the notoriety of their local products. Oxbow "manufactures" a remarkable public gathering place where the community engages and enjoys an authentic daily shopping experience. 3. Is it like the Ferry Building in San Francisco and other public markets? Yes. An Oxbow Public Market will be a fun place to shop, where local merchants offer a broad range of products not typically found in conventional supermarkets. Con- sumers buy directly from the source, for higher quality products, with knowledgeable service, and more afford- able prices. 4. Will it have a Farmer's Market? Yes. An Oxbow Public Market will feature a number of "farmstands" as part of the central Market Hall theme. This provides Oxbow customers with a "farmers' mar- ket" every day of the year, offering the output of local farms and artisan purveyors. Owner -operated farm - stands will sell the freshest local produce with attention to seasonal, sustainable and organic products. Custom- ers who "Buy Fresh/Buy Local" will find these vendors a convenient, pleasurable and reliable source for their daily needs. 5. How do individual tenants benefit from this busi- ness model? Most Oxbow Public Market vendors are dedicated arti- sans but small, owner operated businesses. In order to become vital, exciting brands on their own, they must grow their revenue base and increase profitability. With- in the public market setting they have the opportunity to become household names through their association with other high quality tenants and much higher traffic counts than they would experience on their own. By incubating new concepts, Oxbow will establish its repu- tation as a marketing force for high quality local food and wine producers. 6. How will local developer/partners benefit from an association with Oxbow Public Markets? The inclusion of a 50,000 to 60,000 sf public market in a project will drive values for the core asset and surround- ing properties. Oxbow offers a lifestyle experience that is simple to understand but very difficult to create. That expertise will provide a series of benefits for the developer and to owners of surrounding parcels. 7. How is this different from Whole Foods? Whole Foods is the world's largest retailer of natural and organicfoods. But it is a supermarket— not a collaboration of local artisanal producers. While the spirit and mission of the two companies are similar, Oxbow focuses on only local producers and on creating the community's central gathering place for artisan foods. Whole Foods focuses on selling natural healthy foods to a broad audience. Ox- bow is a place where customers experience an authentic marketplace environment, which historically has existed in great cities throughout world. 8. Who is the competition? Our competitors range from high quality supermarkets such as Whole Foods (and those now trying to emulate Whole Foods), to local farmers' markets, which are part- time operations. We compete primarily with the conve- nience of supermarkets, and must convince Americans to shop with local merchants on a regular basis. By op- erating seven days a week, providing significant variety, and offering services and organic products not available elsewhere, we expect to attract a wide variety of qual- ity -oriented farmer's market customers on a seven day a week basis. 9. What are the challenges of an Oxbow Public Mar- ket? Because the merchants in an Oxbow Public Market are owner -operated and products must be sourced within close proximity to the market, the produce offered will be very seasonal. There will likely be inexperienced retailers. Customers will not find fresh strawberries in the winter nor leaf lettuce during the hot days of summer, so creative menu planning will be emphasized and communicated through the merchants. Our customers will have to be educated about food sourcing and learn to shop in a more authentic daily market, dealing directly with local artisan merchants rather than large corporate entities. Addition- ally, there won't be shopping carts and central check out stands. Opposite: The Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant will have a significant presence at Oxbow Napa with rare local selctions and incredible tasting menus. "d,<BOW PUBLIC MARKET Principals Steve Carlin is Founder and CEO of Oxbow Public Market LLC. His background includes 20 years with Oakville Grocery, a leading Northern California specialty foods retailer, including 10 years as PresidenVCEO. Steve's most recent experience was as Project Manager of the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace. Bart Rhoades is an independent consultant, investor, and COO of Oxbow Public Market LLC. Through his career he has been involved in managing and nurturing a number of successful entrepreneurial ventures, and has headed nine different companies. Brendan Kelly is the Director of Development for Oxbow Public Market LLC. Brendan's experience as an architect, developer, and construction manager covers major institutional work, hospitality and retail environments as well as award -winning residential design. n C 4p m AK `+• a '. 4L-V- _ a ra Low .i f pL4Pd BACKBAY LANDING vL 44w PMMNY/ Rcpel Beu�a�y WIXuIL M�-SeM CI VCN ONPILYYMc�-E��YWYMwry L,EpL4w SlmlTeVeWWec Conbw NO�I.WCMMx-Narn al VCX -NPIPM Ia��-PutlePYG�yq pV IIZ��FN� c5p9 A" "I» * , ;; EATING The Best Fanners laTkPt in 1 You won't leave your artichoke hearts in San Francisco. BY PETER JARET PHOTOGRAPHY BY BROWN CANNON III "WHAT IN THE WORLD do you do with sting- ing nettles?" a young woman in a red hooded pullover and black jeans asks, holding a bunch of dangerous -looking greens between thumb and forefinger. This unusual question fazes none of her fellow shoppers. "Just saute them in olive oil with a little garlic and a few red pepper flakes," one says, browsing the offerings at this crowded outdoor market . stall. "They're wonderful." "Or simmer them up into a soup," another adds. "I've even put them in vegetarian lasagna. Just be careful of the nettles." It's 9:30 in the morning. Fog still shrouds the city. But the stalls of San Francisco's Ferry Plaza Farmers Market are already busy. Shoppers clutch paper cups of hot coffee and look through bins overflowing with'the season's bounty: plump, ripe tomatoes; fat, round pears; fresh garlic; thick figs; hefty cucumbers; and opulent heads of cauliflower. Ferry Plaza is just one of more than 4,300 farm- ers markets operating around the country, from the Manchester Downtown Farmers Market in Manchester, New Hampshire; to Kapiolani Com- munity College Farmers Market in Honolulu — and everywhere in between. All of them reflect the unique character of the places they call home, from the wild mushrooms and smoked Pacific salmon on sale at the Portland Farmers Market, in Oregon to the pine nuts and hot chili peppers hawked at the Sunset Valley Farmers Market near Austin, Texas. The best of them sup- Spirit1107 port local farms and agricultural practices that. keep soil fertile and water uncontaminated. What makes Ferry Plaza stand out from the rest? For starters, where else can you complete your week's shopping —fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, bread, wine, olive oil, and even cut flowers for the dining room table —while watch- ing sailboats zigzag across the bay, seagulls wheel among skyscrapers, and rollerbladers pirouette down the sidewalk? Where else would you find a chef and television starsigning his lat- est book while Alice Waters picks up fresh aru- gula to put on the menu at Chez Panisse? Where else would you find a modern-day Garden of Eden that rose from the rubble of an earth- quake? And where else, really, would a woman wondering how to prepare stinging nettles find ready answers?Lots of places boast terrific farm- ers markets. But when it comes to abundant produce, rich atmosphere, celebrity chefs, an inspiring backstory, and a passion for great food, Ferry Plaza taps them all. It's the best farmers fog I Spirit FOR LOCATION, you couldn't do better than Ferry Plaza. Arrayed on three sides of the newly restored Ferry Building, the 80-plus outdoor stalls that constitute the market look out on sweeping views of the Bay Bridge as it arches across white -capped waters to Yerba Buena Island and then on to Berkeley and Oakland. To the west, Market Street cuts a diagonal course into the city, between the skyscrapers of the financial district and up into the hills of Twin Peaks. Where an ill -planned and unsightly elevated highway once stood, the tree -lined Embarcadero now stretches in front of the Ferry Building. Vintage streetcars, imported from cit- ies around the world, trundle along the tracks. On one corner, a saxplayer riffs on old stan- dards. Not far down the road, a bluegrass band picks away. The salty tang of the'breeze carries the warm smells of fresh -baked bread from Della Fattoria bakery and the earthy aroma of wild mushroom omelettes from the Hayes Street Grill market stall. With an estimated 30,000 people crowding into the market on a busy Saturday, locals use the statue of Gandhi that presides overthe plaza as a meeting place —a perfect emblem for a city synonymous with peace and love. These days, though, hippies have given way to,foodies, and the Ferry Plaza market has become their mecca. Unlike farmers markets in regions with short growing seasons, this one bustles all year. Offer- ings change with the seasons. Purple -tinged cau- liflowers appear at one crowded stall. "It's really just garden-variety cauliflower that sits in the ground a little longer, so it grows out a bit and gets that flowery look," explains Joe Schirmer, who runs Dirty Girl, Produce, a 14-acre farm in Santa Cruz. "The iron in the soil gives it that purple color. Beautiful, isn't it?" It is. A few stalls away, Poll Yerena offers strawber- ries to shoppers. Yerena Farms in Royal Oaks, California, grows five varieties, as well as rasp- berries, blackberries, and both red and black currants.In summer, they feature a -variation called a tayberry, a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry. "People wait all year just to taste it;' Yerena says. I sample a fruit so new that it still doesn't have an official name. Yerena calls it a candy strawberry because of its sugary sweetness. Tasting it, I imagine serving a bowlful with a generous dollop of tangy cream cheese. Finding that cheese isn't hard. The nearby Spring Hill Jersey Cheese booth offers a wealth of locally produced varieties, including jack, cheddar, ricotta, and several unusual specialty cheeses. The butter on sale, churned the day before, uses cream from Jersey cows. The breed doesn't yield as much milk as the common Hol. stein, but what they produce possesses about 25 percent more milk fat than their rivals do. But enough about food —for the moment, The Feny Plaza also excels in atmosphere, provid- ing the perfect place to grab a cup of coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee Co., browse the aisles at the Book Passage in the Ferry Building, and Ifsten to wandering minstrels. Many of the shoppers here push wheeled carts called Hook n-Gos, designed with rows of hooks for hanging bags of produce. To save landfills from an inundation of plastic bags, the nonprofit group that runs the market, the Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture, plans to encourage ven- dors and shoppers to use alternatives. This thriving foodie scene sprang up after one of the darkest moments in the history of the city. When the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit, it halted the World Series, damaged the Ferry Building, toppled houses, and collapsed high- ways and sections of the Bay Bridge. At exactly 5:04—the moment the quake hit —the clock in the building's prominent tower stopped. For almost a decade the clock remained frozen at that time while the facility underwent repairs, an unsettling reminder of the city's precarious perch near the San Andreas Fault. Now the clock keeps time again, presiding over the restored building and the transformed neighborhood around it. But the real reason the Ferry Plaza stands apart, as the professional chefs and serious food- fes who frequent it each Tuesday and Saturday will tell you, is the larger locale it inhabits. The BayArea includes an agricultural region of unparalleled diversity, blessed with a mild Medi- terranean climate that allows local farmers to bring fresh fruit and vegetables to market all year round, To the east and south lie the sun -struck fields of the Central Valley, famous for nuts, garlic, and artichokes. Up north, cows and goats graze the rolling pasturelands of Marin County. The cool ocean breezes there create conditions ideal for raising leafy green vegetables and pint noirgrapes. Nearby Tomales Bay produces some of the most succulent oysters anywhere, while the fishermen of Bodega Bay, a little farther north, haul in generous harvests of salmon and Dungeness crab. Inland, the valleys of Sonoma, Napa, and Sacramento get hot summer days and cool nights, the best combination for grow. ing some of the world's finest grapes, as well as tomatoes, squash, kale, beans, peas, cauliflower, apples, pears, and figs. "California grows some 350 crops, and multiple varieties of those many crops," says Gail Feenstra, an analyst with the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program at the University of California, Davis. "That allows the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market to draw on an exceptional diversity of produce." Brandon Ross of Ella Bella Farms in Corralitos agrees. 1 can almost guarantee you that you'll find some things you've never tasted before," he says. Byway of example, he offers me an Early Girl tomato. Early Girls I know, I tell him smugly. I've grown them myself. "Not like these," he says with a grin. The microclimate of Ella Bella's 16 acres offers hot days and foggy nights, ideal for growing toma- toes without irrigation, a method called dry -'Ten Veggies Expand your crilinaru%;hgri: ': devofaes,K i e'Kh&4K P .restaurabt`,,and'GaIBFeen's I' uad' � •,,•,yp, • d.thase offbeatueg, { •CAR'D,OO1J �j : A''eticf FJem 'tolsoupst!mal on=a d.aarl(c'' ''''i' ,. 1, • 'p! ,,, ;,' • .'. ,andoiive61 d.REEWcAgi: C"'iarllc -•'.,� Use•whemg I'i•t; ';'„1; "`°j_r• .up;.MIN'witf (I''RUTABaba 1.''7dMJ, 4Keatllkea;l _ r acid mash'. ;1 P.AesM;ipr ielaljdlc6Rot.,'t,'r,FPY.;toitar_l' s peas) ' Bglls�iipeas' ,. t ,I�'Add,tostew 1 1,•t1C1OL�L.IN-D YONION buvn, r ,`RoaswieCo" and,pepd 'N��T- '1,i .Ta'rtndsslo'•"!�Comb� e�'^' h In,7 ,l . ,a•3 al , 2 , ,t, k •. - :,,,: strawberries pfsuga'r: .. 1 leaf' otl;;li'affot ti •i )y1wAX: G�eeti.bean's, 'Qdd'tolsal�il,'. tosiMth of ob'bterwi'tit: h8;plenEy,•, SerVispi,ft'¢ in151 S l•pihe �ts,j 4thgr ba,I toes: ', 1, �nd4..,,� ?am, • i salt, M Spirit I nr farming. "The heat lets the tomatoes ripen," Ross says. "The moist, cool evenings give the plants a chance to recover." Like grapevines, tomatoes send taproots deep into the soil to find water, sometimes as far as 30 feet down. Dry -farmed plants produce fewer tomatoes, but the lower yield concentrates the flavor. I'll say. The taste, earthy and acidic, makes my eyes water. I'm lucky I arrived early. Ross says the Early Girls will sell out by noon. Many items won't last that long. Top chefs in this restaurant -rich city hit themarket early, prowling the stalls to see what's fresh, talking to growers and filling up their carts with the black- berries, dinosaur kale, crane melon, and fresh mozzarella they'll serve that evening. "1'm a regular, Tuesdays and Saturdays," says Annie Somerville. "I wouldn't miss it for the world." Somerville is executive chef at Greens, the fabled restaurant In San Francisco that pio- neered haute vegetarian food. "The Ferry Plaza market is my source for what we'll be cooking during the week at Greens. Its also a place for '�r •,y7 ,i i�n.�', rrs I Spirit exchanging ideas. 'What are you doing with thisT 'How do you prepare that?' There are a lot of professional chefs, but there arealso a lot of just plain fantastic home cooks, people who really know food and love food. There are plenty of times 1 go back to the kitchen,at Greens to try something I've heard about at the market:' THE SUCCESS of San -Francisco's Ferry Plaza epitomizes a nationally improving palate. Never before have Americans enjoyed such a wide choice of food —or been so obsessed with what we eat. Bookstores are crowded with volumes on the subject, from Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Penguin Press) to Barbara Kingsolver's charming account of her family's attempt to raise everything they put on the table, called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (HarpeiCollins). Many of the country's leading food writers and top nutritionists urge shoppers to leave the grocery store and head to the farm- ers market whenever they can. Why? Freshness, variety, and taste, for starters. At most local markets, growers pick their produce the afternoon before they sell it, making it far fresher than most anything on sale at grocery stores. Truly fresh produce tastes better and stays fresher longer. Fresh produce also packs more nutrition. Then there's diversity. Farmers' markets typically feature heirloom varieties— cultivars of tomatoes, potatoes, apples, pears, and other produce that suit growing conditions in specific regions. A century ago, more than 100 types of apples and nearly as many kinds of tomatoes grew around the United States. Many of these varieties all but disappeared from markets as large-scale farmers settled on two or three types that had the virtues of being easy to grow and ship. Small farmers, because theysell locally, can ignore shipability. They can choose varieties that taste great. But tastiness isn't everything. Many Ferry Pla- za shoppers want to know exactly how the food they buy is grown or raised, and the vendors try to fill them in. Take David Evans. The fourth generation California rancher raises cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens at Marin Sun Farms north of the Golden Gate Bridge. He gives none of his animals hormones and allows all of them to range freely. Customers say the taste of his grass-fed beef Is beyond compare. Just as impor- tant, they can trust that Evans treatshis livestock humanely. And if they have any doubts, they can 4 M1 F ;E n41 Spirit come up to the ranch and see for themselves. Like many of the vendors at the Ferry Plaza mar- ket, Evans welcomes visitors. "That's important to us," he says. "When people come out to the ranch, they can see firsthand that they're also helping to preserve an agricultural heritage:' Shoppers don t have to leave the market to get the inside story. Almost every stand here posts a placard about the farm or ranch, its staff, the type of soil, the climate, and the growing meth- ods. Curious to know about the soil that pro- duces Knoll Farms' exceptionally peppery and tender arugula? Its all there. (if you must know, the soil is clay, with a rich blend of raw and com- posted organic matter, cover crops, crop stubble, and some earthworm castings thrown in for good measure) The group that runs the market also sponsors lectures about sustainable agri- culture, hosts cookbook signings at the'Saturday market, sponsors farm tours, and recently added cooking classes to its roster of events. Not all customers care to dig quite that deep, of course. The farmers don't mind. WT 7�'­ LL in fact, markets like this one keep many small , farms in business. The number of American 1 farmers markets grew by more than 50 percent 1 over the past decade, to a total of 4,385 in 2006, i •9 the most recent year data was available. These ;I markets typically help farms that make less than $250,000 a year, according to the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture. Ella Bella'S Brandon Ross certainly feels grate- ful. He can sell wholesale quantities of the farms produce here at retail prices, making 80 cents .; on the dollar rather than the 20 cents he might , earn selling to grocery chains and allowing him to.pay his workers more. For Ross, who studied sustainable agriculture at the University of Cali- fornia, Ella Bella is a complete package: "1 went into farming to meld those two worlds, to give farm workers a fairwage and a healthy working -r environment, and to protect the land and the heritage of small farms like ours. We couldn't do x that without the Ferry Plaza market." LIKE THE BEST farmers markets everywhere, Ferry Plaza gets people excited about food. At once a living laboratory for finer dining and a case study in market economics, this mat ket- place manages to remain something less exalted but just as important: a delightful place to shop, meet up with old friends, sample a new taste treat, listen to live music, watch the fog lift and the sun sparkle on the bay —in short, to pause and appreciate the best that life has to offer. After an hour of puttering among the stalls, sampling a fresh strawberry here and a local cheese there, San Franciscan Mary McSweeney picks up a Hook-n-Go so overburdened that it calls to mind apack mule. "I'm originally from a small community in Ireland:' she says. "For me, this market is a little like that. It's a little village in the middle of a big city, where you know the shopkeepers and they know you, where people exchange news about their families and the lat- est recipes." As McSweeney turns to go home, a rollerblader clutching a bouquet of fresh flowers shoots past, amearby sax player launches into a new song, and a ferry toots its horn. McSweeney glances around at the hubbub. "This:' she says with a smile, "is my grocery store:' PeterJoret writes about food, nutrition, and health for The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, and other publications. He tends a patch offigs, greens, and snap peas in northern California. LIKE THE BEST farmers markets everywhere, Ferry Plaza gets people excited about food. At once a living laboratory for finer dining and a case study in market economics, this mat ket- place manages to remain something less exalted but just as important: a delightful place to shop, meet up with old friends, sample a new taste treat, listen to live music, watch the fog lift and the sun sparkle on the bay —in short, to pause and appreciate the best that life has to offer. After an hour of puttering among the stalls, sampling a fresh strawberry here and a local cheese there, San Franciscan Mary McSweeney picks up a Hook-n-Go so overburdened that it calls to mind apack mule. "I'm originally from a small community in Ireland:' she says. "For me, this market is a little like that. It's a little village in the middle of a big city, where you know the shopkeepers and they know you, where people exchange news about their families and the lat- est recipes." As McSweeney turns to go home, a rollerblader clutching a bouquet of fresh flowers shoots past, amearby sax player launches into a new song, and a ferry toots its horn. McSweeney glances around at the hubbub. "This:' she says with a smile, "is my grocery store:' PeterJoret writes about food, nutrition, and health for The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, and other publications. He tends a patch offigs, greens, and snap peas in northern California.