Ferry Building San Francisco: The City's Greatest Food Market

The Ferry Building Marketplace is San Francisco's finest food market and one of the best in America — a gorgeously restored Beaux-Arts terminal building from 1898 that extends along the Embarcadero waterfront and houses more than 50 specialty food vendors, restaurants, and artisan producers within its 300-metre arcade. The Ferry Building has been the anchor of San Francisco's celebrated food culture since its conversion from a working ferry terminal in 2003, attracting producers from across Northern California who use it as a showcase for the region's extraordinary agricultural bounty: heritage cheeses, dry-farmed tomatoes, artisan charcuterie, wild mushrooms, and single-origin chocolate.

The Saturday Farmers Market on the building's Embarcadero Plaza is the best in the Bay Area — a sprawling outdoor market where the producers themselves sell their goods directly to San Francisco's chefs and home cooks. Arriving at the Saturday market on a clear morning offers one of the city's finest experiences: browsing through stalls of Brentwood peaches, Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, Rancho Gordo heirloom beans, and local oysters while the morning fog burns off the Bay and the Bay Bridge glows in the brightening light. The market's prepared food vendors offer some of the best breakfast options in the city — Roli Roti's porchetta sandwiches and Acme Bread's morning pastries have cult followings among regular Saturday market visitors.

The building's interior vendors are equally compelling — Cowgirl Creamery's retail counter, the Slanted Door's legendary Vietnamese-California lunch, Boccalone's charcuterie, and the Imperial Tea Court's Chinese tea selection represent the depth of food culture available without leaving the building. The view from the Ferry Building's outdoor terrace across the Bay to Treasure Island and the East Bay hills is one of the finest waterfront perspectives in San Francisco, and the building's position at the foot of Market Street makes it an ideal starting point for exploring the Embarcadero, the waterfront, and the city's historic downtown.