Sow’s “Farm-To-Juice” Shop Is A Must-Stop in the SF Ferry Building

When visiting the Ferry Building in San Francisco, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially on farmers market days. The space is home to some of the biggest names in the Northern California food scene: Frog Hollow, Cowgirl Creamery, Acme Bread, and Blue Bottle Coffee. New to the scene– but no less worthy– is Sōw Juice, a juice bar that sources all of its ingredients from organic, California farmers.

By now, juice is a well established part of the health scene and consumers are looking a more closely at where and how the ingredients for those juices are sourced. Like The Enroot Collective on the East Coast, Sōw Juice operates with a social dimension, supporting local, organic California farmers. “Sōw evolved out of a desire to showcase the specialness of California grown produce, herbs, and flowers,” Luisa Alberto, the owner of Sow Juice told GC. “Once you taste an in-season ambrosia melon or a ripe persimmon, you are forever changed.”

Located on the Embarcadero facing facade of the Ferry Building, Sōw Juice epitomizes a kind of utopian symbiosis, bringing the absolute freshest produce to their juices, in a farm-to-juice shop model. “Most of the farmers sell right in our backyard at the Ferry Plaza Market, which is how we met them. They’re also frequent customers,” Alberto added.

As a result of their structure, the juices change with each season. Among Alberto’s highlights for each season are: the Ambrosia (seasonal in Summer), a blend ambrosia melon, apple, lemon, rose geranium; the Monarch (seasonal in Winter), which combines persimmon, orange, pomegranate, lemon, ginger; and their biggest hit the Hero (seasonal in Summer/Fall), a mix of peppercress, orange, spinach, kale, ginger, and mint. “We love using lemon,” Alberto confessed. “It magically makes the ingredients sing together and we use a touch of it in almost every combination; it’s our salt and pepper. “