Arizmendi Bakery

Arizmendi Bakery is this adorable bakery on 9th Ave in San Francisco between Irving and Judah.  My mom had bought a ridiculous amount of baked good from this place, but this was the first day she took me.  Apparently there was a co-op in Berkeley that later decided to open a bakery based on their cooperative principles and they eventually made their way over to San Francisco.  As of right now, there are five different locations throughout the Bay Area.  While they are not technically a chain, they are each associated with each other through those cooperative principles (this is according to the guy behind the counter that day).

The day I went to this bakery, it was an absolutely stunning day in the city, at least as soon as the pouring rain stopped.  There are benches and chairs outside that provide the perfect setting for some good old fashioned carb-bonding time and inside there is a lot of light and bread lines the walls.

On this particular excursion, I sampled the cheese bread (a delicious whole wheat bread covered in perfectly crisped asiago), a mint double chocolate chip cookie, and the pizza of the day.  As far as I can tell, each day Arizmendi makes a new type of pizza.  The day I went, the toppings were as followed: sautéed mushrooms, parsley, parmesan, spinach, and Rosemary oil.  It was perfect.  I think the pizza was $20, the cookie $2, and the cheese bread somewhere around $3 (maybe?).  Point is, they were all worth it.

my dad didn't trust the baker's pizza-making abilities
so he added pepperoni