It’s spring, and that means it’s time to start gardening. It’s still not too late to get some seeds started for the season, and Driver’s boasts a curated collection of exotic offerings from Redwood Seeds in Manton, CA. On their small family farm, Kalan Redwood and her husband Cam grow and save a variety of rare heirloom seeds from around the world. Our produce manager, Lauren Miller, worked with Kalan to put together a selection of seeds that would thrive in Sausalito.
The Road to Zero Waste: For our homes, our cities and our planet
At the Around the Table at Driver’s talk in February 2016, Bay Area waste experts Donnie Oliveira and Janelle Fitzpatrick came to Driver’s to discuss the issues of Zero Waste and the work they are doing to shape policy at a global scale.
Buddhist Approach to Resolutions
At the Around the Table at Driver’s event in January 2016, Evan Shepherd Reiff of Marin Oriental Medicine discussed the ancient Buddhist teaching of View-Path-Action as it relates to an Integrative Medicine approach to making lasting changes in life…starting with your New Year’s Resolution.
Prepping with Domingo Morales
Domingo Morales is our deli prep specialist. When Adam Driver, our co-founder, offered him a job at Driver’s two years ago, Domingo was working for Sushi Ran, the famous sushi restaurant half a block away from Driver’s. He was reluctant to give up his job, so he took Adam’s offer as his second job. Domingo is responsible for prepping ingredients …
Great seasonal gifts
Minding the kitchen: Carlos Rodriguez
Carlos Rodriguez joined us about a year and a half ago. We’ve been eating better ever since, and hope you have too. Carlos and his team of four whip up our daily selection of salads, burritos, lasagna, chicken curry, chicken tenders and a number of other prepared foods that can be found at the front of our deli section, as …
The sweet goodness of Honey Mama’s
Christy Goldsby grew up in a family full of cooks, bakers, farmers, gardeners and happy eaters. “The kitchen was always a place of celebration, creativity, nourishment and joy,” she says. In 2012 she started Honey Mama’s in Portland, Ore., as a way to share her passion for healthy living and those celebrated family traditions. Her cacao-nectar bars are delicious desserts and …
Stocking the shelves: Amaris Cuervo
We work hard to keep our shelves laden and our wares neatly displayed, and no one works harder to help us do that than Amaris Cuervo. The Los Angeles native moved to Novato as a child. She was working at a local dry cleaner’s when she was encouraged to apply for a position we’d posted by her sister, who works …
A health-conscious spirit
Danya Mosgofian of San Francisco created the Sultry Gypsy Herb Company to make natural remedies that are alcohol-free but strong and efficacious.
Poet at the cash register: Paul Geffner
There are many reasons Paul Geffner, our co-founder, is excited about Driver’s Market. The Sausalito resident has helped create more than a dozen different businesses over the past few decades. “Of all the things I’ve been involved in, this is by far my favorite!” he exclaims. As we’ve explained elsewhere, Adam Driver met Paul on a local basketball court years …
Your neighborhood kombucha
Marin Kombucha founder Brian Igersheim studied biology and chemistry in college, then went to work in the food industry. This year, he launched his new venture to put his accumulated expertise to work making his own version of kombucha, the popular fermented fizzy tea drink. As the overview on the company’s website explains, kombucha is the result of “a playful ferment” – sugar turns …
The founder (and boss): Adam Driver
Many of our friends and customers know the story of how Driver’s came about. While managing the Real Food Company at the same location for years, Adam began putting together his own business plan for a market. He met local businessman Paul Geffner on the Sausalito basketball court, and they started kicking around the idea of opening the store together. …
The grocery curator: Graham Driver
Graham, a partner in the store (and Adam’s brother) takes on a lot of different roles around the store, but by far his favorite one is sourcing products. “He ensures that we live up to our standards,” Adam says. Graham says, “I take that responsibility seriously. We’ve created a climate where people trust the products we put on the shelves …
The amazing tastes of Tara
“If you are having a bad day and want to make it better, have ice cream,” counsels Tara Esperanza. “If you are having a good day and you want to top it off, have ice cream.” We couldn’t agree more. Tara began making ice cream a decade ago in Santa Fe and set up shop in the East Bay a …
The wine merchant: Niesa Granger
Producing great wine, Niesa Granger says, is a lot like producing great art. “It’s about both knowing how the science works and knowing how the art works.” Niesa, who heads our wine department, studied art at the University of Washington, and then began learning more about wine’s similarities while working as a sommelier in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina devastated …
Midwinter freshness from Full Belly Farm
Anyone hailing from a colder clime marvels at the year-round bounty around here. Even in the middle of winter, our bins display a cornucopia of fresh, delicious produce, much of it from Full Belly Farms, a thirty year-old 350-acre certified organic farm in the Capay Valley, about 100 miles north of Sausalito. Their annual “Hoes Down” festival in October, an …
The great taste of Nana Joes Granola
There’s granola, and then there’s Nana Joes. It’s made in San Francisco by hand in a gluten-free kitchen, full of locally-sourced fruits and nuts, and sweetened only by maple syrup from an artisan producer on the East Coast. Former pastry chef Michelle Pusateri named it after her grandparents (one Nana, two Joes). “I was making my own granola and giving …
The sandwich genius: Alex Hayden
Alex Hayden joined Driver’s a couple of months before it opened, and runs our deli section. “The deli is my brainchild,” says the Sausalito native. His late grandfather, Sterling, starred in 35 movies and lived in Sausalito until his death in 1986. His mom when pregnant with Alex worked as a cashier at Real Foods, which occupied the Driver’s space …
Bread SRSLY, a gluten-free love story
Bread SRSLY makes delicious, moist and nourishing gluten-free sourdough breads. It started with a college crush, a gluten-intolerant San Franciscan. Sadie Scheffer began to bake loaves of gluten-free sourdough bread in hopes of winning him over. The first attempts weren’t completely successful. “I got to work experimenting with new ingredients – sorghum flour, sweet rice, buckwheat,” Sadie recalls. “Many of …
From Fra’ Mani to you
Fra’ Mani Handcrafted Foods, based in Berkeley, California, was founded by nationally-recognized chef Paul Bertolli. Fra’ Mani strives to keep old world food traditions alive in taste and technique, and is committed to selecting ingredients of the highest quality to produce a wide array of hand-tied dry salami, sausages, cooked salumi and deli meats. Fra’ Mani works with family farmers dedicated …
