Bay Area natives Sam and Kevin opened up a new market Food Folk in December to great fanfare in the Inner Richmond. They feature small food producers who make high-quality foods with unique ingredients. Their Mama Teav's garlic chili crisp and black sesame almonds are staples that keep me coming back, but their inventory rotates frequently, so there's always a new flavor to try. A fun place to discover new goods, Food Folk makes a great addition to the Clement Corridor. Read more about the new shop in the Q&A below.
Q: Why did you open Food Folk?
Kevin Elmore: My wife, Sam, and I opened Food Folk because we wanted to create the kind of place we'd want to visit ourselves. After years of seeking out small food producers and spending weekends crawling estate sales and hunting for vintage treasures, we wanted to bring those passions together in one space. We also wanted to give shelf space to the super-small producers who are making incredible things but don't have distribution yet—the ones who need that first boost to get noticed. Clement Street felt like the perfect home for it—it's always been a food destination for us, and the neighborhood has this incredible energy of independent businesses and people who genuinely care about what they eat and how they live. We wanted to add to that, not replicate what's already here.
Q: What are your three most popular items?
Kevin: Honestly, what's "popular" shifts almost daily—and we love that. Some customers come in for fresh local kimchi or salami, others for the vintage kitchenware, or to discover a new sauce or chili oil. We do try to keep some staples stocked, though we intentionally rotate our inventory and work with really small producers, so what you find one week might be totally different the next. That's part of the fun.
Q: What makes you different from other markets?
Kevin: We're not trying to be a one-stop shop—we're more of a discovery spot. Everything we carry is something we've tried, used, or genuinely gotten excited about, and a lot of it you won't find anywhere else in the Bay Area. We work directly with tiny producers—like a one-person coffee roaster in the neighborhood or a farm stand we'd shop at while living in the Southeast. We also weave in vintage homeware that we've sourced and collected over the years, which creates these unexpected moments of connection when someone recognizes a piece from their childhood or learns something interesting about the past. Unlike your typical grocer, our customers don't come in with a shopping list—they leave with things they didn't know they were looking for, things that spark creativity and make cooking or gathering around the table a little more fun.
Address:
210 Clement St (@ 3rd Ave), San Francisco, CA 94118
Hours:
Wednesday-Saturday 10:00am-6:00pm
Sunday 9:00am-5:00pm
Website:
Share:
