The Grocery List: Rainbow Groceries, San Francisco
Let’s make it clear: homophobics, waste lovers, vegan-bashers: You are not welcome at Rainbow. I guess Rainbow is as San Francisco as it gets: the store is closed every year for the Gay Pride parade, and it doesn’t carry on the shelves any animal product- other than maybe the pet food aisle.
Rainbow carries an amazing selection of bulk food- from pasta to spices, going through grains, cereals and coffee, if it exists and it can be sold in bulk, Rainbow will have it. In terms of Italian pantry staples, this means Rustichella pasta is not only on the shelves, in both its regular and brown-colored farro (spelt) incarnation, but also on the bulk section, with trofie and orecchiette showing off in the bulk pasta aisle.
Thinking how to dress pasta if you don’t have time to make sugo from scratch? Well, Cirio is a trusted Italian brand that is starting to show up in stores. At Rainbow, they carry both an arrabbiata sauce and the simple plain tomatoes one. Pick your own!
I had heard through the grapevines that this is one of the few places that carries Fette Biscottate, which I am told in English it is said “rusks”. We eat these crunchy bread-meets-cookie treats in the morning, with marmellata (jam), as a breakfast item. Now, when it comes to marmellata, the more artisanal the better in my opinion! Since I am not apt in doing preserves on my own, I buy mine, and my favorite brand BY FAR is Agrimontana, a small producers from Piemonte I was introduced to by marriage. We usually come back from Italy with suitcases filled with Agrimontana products, but before hurdling back those heavy suitcases I should have checked here because- hello! Agrimontana preserve is here! It also doesn’t hurt that my second favorite brand, Villa Giulia, is right next to it…
So, rusks. (I’m not fond of the name it doesn’t sound very appetizing, does it?) Gentilini, an old-fashioned bakery-product producer, makes both fette biscottate (much better!) and Oswego cookies- the dry cookies I ate for breakfast growing up! How delicious! Those couldn’t be passed up. And neither the Loacker, that though somewhat more widespread in the US nowadays still taste “like home”!
Speaking of breakfast sweets, how about the Looza juices in all taste and flavors?? Looza is originally from Belgium, but they are very common juices in Italy. In particular, I pick up a peach juice bottle almost every weekend to make brunch Bellinis!
The Grocery List is going to end upside down, as I am heading back to savory after sweet: ever heard of an Olive Oil Wall? well, Rainbow Groceries has one! A (almost) floor to ceiling shelf with all possible extra virgins olive oils, from Italy as well as Spain, Greece, Tunisia and California!
Rainbow Grocery
1745 Folsom St
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 863-0620
Filed under: San Francisco, The Grocery List
[...] Rainbow [...]
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