ABOUT DRIVER’S MARKET

Our story begins years ago on a local basketball court, where Adam Driver met Paul Geffner, a longtime Sausalito resident. Paul (the juggler to the left in the photo) is an entrepreneur with several other interests in the food business. Adam in those days was working at a local natural-food store on Caledonia Street. After shooting hoops, they’d shoot the breeze, talking about Sausalito and the richness of the Bay Area’s food culture. Adam grew up in Ann Arbor eating food from Zingerman’s, the nationally-famous gourmet-food destination. Wouldn’t it be great to run their own store in a place like Sausalito?

In the fall of 2011, the store on Caledonia Street closed, vacating a space that had been operating as a grocery since the mid-1970s, leaving a big void for local residents. Adam approached Paul about partnering to re-open a store in the space. Paul and his family were keenly aware of the impact of the empty store, and decided to team up with the Drivers and create Driver’s Market. “It’s been a longtime dream,” Adam told a Marin newspaper in 2012. Adam enlisted his brothers Graham and Eric, an experienced contractor, to help him renovate the 100-year-old building, and they all got to work building the new Driver’s.

Working together, the Driver brothers stripped the building to its bones, updating electrical and mechanical systems and installing modern kitchen and storage facilities. New windows opened the space up to the street frontage and to natural light, creating a more inviting gathering spot. Sustainability influenced many decisions made in building and operating the store:

We are Deep Green members of Marin Clean Energy.

Newer, energy efficient models replaced old, inefficient refrigeration equipment.

LED lighting cut power usage, as did utilizing the natural light from skylights.

Four bike racks in front of the market encourage customers to bike rather than driving, and we encourage employees to bike to work.

We use reusable dishes and cutlery for our dine-in foods and beverages.

We offer earth-friendly, compostable and/or recyclable packaging and containers for to-go deli foods and beverages.

We compost and recycle everything we can, and ensure that all waste is diverted to the proper waste facilities.

We do everything in our power to avoid sourcing products that are genetically modified.

Our goal is simple: To connect people with each other and to the foods that they eat. The food that you put into your body is of the utmost importance. In a world where it is increasingly difficult to know where the food on our plates comes from, we strive to offer foods that you can trace back to the people who grew and produced them. Today’s grocery shopping experience, with all of the choices and the uncertainty about food quality, can be a daunting experience. That’s why it’s important to us that you can trust all of the food on our shelves, because we have done the research for you.

We are thankful for the warm welcome we’ve received from the community, which began with Sausalito then-Mayor Herb Weiner cutting the ribbon at our official opening in 2012 (shown above). It’s great to see that our cafe has indeed become an all-day gathering spot. We were very honored in November 2014 when Sausalito’s Chamber of Commerce named us “Best Large Business.” We look forward to seeing you in the store soon.