Sourdough Bread at Boudin!

For those who don’t know what I am talking about I can’t help you. If you want to experience it you must visit San Francisco and come to the location shown on this post! It is the Boudin Bakery and it makes sourdough bread. It is as simple as that. I have visited this bakery every single time I have visited the city and this time around, since I was by myself and do whatever I please, I have had three meals there. A breakfast, lunch and dinner on the same day! :) why not!

I could have started with many pictures but I will start with a croissant!

Breakfast!

It is an Almond frangipane croissant with a coffee. The croissant was $7.19 and the coffee was $3.50! Yes, nothing is cheap at Boudin, but so what?! If you are a bread maker that that money in the bank for you! @beelzael

Boudin’s daily revenue is easily north of $50K - $100K at the pier 39 location. There is no way to get the actual number as Boudin is a private company, but just looking at the traffic and the price of the food on offer, I say that number is a conservative average guess.

Apology for the slightly tilted picture, trying to juggle too many things at the same time, all these blog is written on the phone as it happens, so that sort of gives you an on the go, scatter-brain vibe. Anyways, how was the Almond Croissant? Heavenly! Do I pay $7 for it? You bet! Do other people pay $7 for it? Absolutely! The store opens at 9:30 AM, fairly late of a bakery, but I had to go there at the open to avoid long lines. After 10:00 AM it gets really crowded.

So, there is nothing much to say about the coffee, I have had better coffee. Hey, even I can make better coffee than that, but it was passable. The croissant made up for it. It was excellent breakfast, especially while watching the bread making through the window. The smell, the smell alone gets me every time!

The Window

I haven't shown you the store front yet, but that can wait. The two main thing about Boudin Bakery is not its bread, it is their large floor to ceiling demonstration window, and the second thing is the smell of bread. Demonstration window is in fact a misnomer. Because they are not really demonstrating, they are working. Their entire work area is transparent, open and visible to the public. I don't know about any other well known store that has this feature.

Here you can see a young baker making crab bread our of sourdough. The Alligator bread in front is real product and you can buy it.

Here is her work a few minutes after.

These little bear breads are also not just for display, they are actual product and people buy them constantly. You can see many people are working multiple stations and they are all busy doing their day job, but time to time they play a little for the gallery too, which swells!

People always gather around to see some baking action!

The Store Front

Here is the store front before it get busy.

It is right on beach street on Pier 39 at Fisherman Wharf, probably the most festive address in San Francisco. It is almost always full of locals and tourists alike.

It is a fairly large warehouse looking building with 3 floors.

This is the view of the store from the back. Yes they have their own trucks, quite a fleet. The warehouse covers almost half a city block it is that big.

Inside it is just like you probably have expected. There are breads of all difference size and shape. They are stacked up high from floor to the ceiling.

As everything is transparent, you can also see the next batch of bread bowls in the pipeline for the famous clam chowder.

Lunch

Anyways, I decided to buy a chicken sandwich for lunch and head for the Fort Mason Park. There is a large grassy meadow there which is great from people watch and has sweeping view of the city and the San Francisco bay.

I walked around a bit and got a glimpse of Alcatraz island through lift of the low clouds. It was still a gorgeous day. I thought this is a great place to open my $19 chicken sandwich!

There you have it. My $19 sandwich. No there was no bitcoin in it. Just grilled chicken! :)

Looks good though. Oh, the water was mine from the hotel. If I bought the bottled water that would have been $6 more. Yes, $25 for a meal, that is SFO for you. However, mind you if you are a sandwich seller what is the problem, people are happily lining up to buy your expensive product. Price is relative!

Dinner

After lunch, I did some more walking around the city and went all the way up to the Golden Gate park. Walked the land's end trail, but that will be a different story. Let keep this one focused on Boudin. So just to make a point, I came back there in the evening after a couple of glasses of wine at a local wine bar, and wanted to have the iconic clam chowder in a bread bowl!

There you have it. $15.80 for that ticket, and I even saved it :) That is a legacy San Francisco business for you. It is big recognition from the city and its people! Long live Boudin!

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