Vendors who share our passion

Lindsay Ott came to the Bay Area in 2013 with her young son and a background in organic farming and midwifery. She understood a new mother’s needs and fused her passions into postpartum nutrition. In her quest to find kindred spirits, Lindsay contacted Jane Lin, owner of Mama Tong. Jane trained Lindsay in Chinese postpartum soups, indicating that she was …

VYBES is a line of functional drinks made with Hemp CBD, and designed to bring calm to the mind and body. Founder Jonathan Eppers believes that modern lifestyles take a toll on our health, and that medicinal properties of plants, including cannabis, offer significant healing. THe VYBES collection of organic juices are infused with 25 mg Hemp CBD per bottle. …

UK wunderkind Jeffrey Postelthwaite had three restaurants by the time he was 19 years old. He says it was his love of food, rather than classical culinary training, that won him British food awards. By 23, Jeffrey sold his business and moved to LA to try his hand at acting, landing a roll in Peaky Blinders. Still in California, Jeffrey …

Cristina Arantes, a.k.a. Kika, was born and raised in Brazil, surrounded by tropical cacao, and spent her days baking and eating all things chocolate. In 1999 she moved to San Francisco and had the opportunity to refine her skills at some of the City’s best restaurants and bakeries. In 2006, she made a list of her favorite cookies and decided …

Shawn Askinosie’s daughter Lawren wondered if her dad might have lost his mind when he quit law to take up craft chocolate. But she worked alongside him, and helped him build one of the first fair trade chocolate companies in the country. Together they travel the world, empowering farmers they work with, and sourcing cacao for their small factory in …

Fairfax entrepreneur Shireen Khera grew up in India, where she learned Ayurvedic cooking from her mother, and where farm-to-table cuisine is a way of life. When she moved to the US for graduate studies, she gravitated toward budget-friendly fast food. In time, Shireen rediscovered vegetarian cooking. To create her Hey!Hunger recipes, Shireen riffed on the Indian snack tikkis to create …

Greg Moore founded Tam CBD Drinks in Sausalito with the goal to promote wellness using full-spectrum hemp. Inspired to find balance in daily life, Greg experimented with CBD and juice blends to test their effects on mood, body and function. He developed a line of organic drinks that are infused with CBD from hemp, plus functional ingredients including turmeric, electrolytes, …

Heart Roasters founders Rebekah and Willie Yli-Luomo bring a passion for coffee to their Portland cafes, where customers can relax and connect with each other. Wifi is not available at the shops so that guests can unplug, and chat with knowledgeable baristas about roast flavors and bean sources. In their retail line, Heart offers the same custom experience of freshly …

Cellarmaker is a San Francisco based brewery that makes beers in small batches, and constantly releases different flavors. The team at Cellarmaker includes the founders Connor Casey, Tim Sciascia, and Kelly Caveney Sciacia. They feel that making the same beers all the time would limit them creatively, so they don’t follow that business model. Their output and production schedule is …

Founder Anthony Bonviso’s passion for ice cream began when he was a kid growing up in an Italian neighborhood in Connecticut. He moved to California in the 1970’s and pursued a career as a hairstylist, but never lost his passion for culinary arts. For years, he practiced his gelato technique, even living for a while in Rimini, Italy. His goal …

Born in New Jersey, Emily Winston grew up eating a lot of bagels. Her favorites were from H&H on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. When she moved to the West Coast in 2010, she not only missed New York bagels, but was really disappointed when H&H closed. Emily embarked on a journey, through trial and error, to create the bagels she …

During lockdown, Mad Dandy co-founder Marty Friedman was drinking five coffees a day. Hoping to cut his caffeine intake, he began to research coffee brewed from dandelion and mushroom. He loved that these drinks were rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, but didn’t care for the brands he tried. He began sourcing his own ingredients and tinkering with flavor profiles, eventually …

The Giacomini family established their dairy farm in 1959, when Bob and Dean Giacomini purchased 720 acres in Tomales Bay. They were successful and their herd of cows grew large, producing some of the best milk in Sonoma. But they could see the land was stressed, and realized a large dairy operation wasn’t sustainable. Together with Bob’s wife and grown …

One of the brightest new spirits in town is Sausalito Liquor Co., producer of gin and whiskeys inspired by the flavors of northern California. Marketing exec and Sausalito denizen Scott Jampol launched the company earlier this year with a nod to the “fantastic story-tellers, poets, musicians, and salty characters whose spirit comes through in every pour.” Jampol enjoyed success at …

Based in Sausalito, Best Day Brewing is one of the fastest growing non-alcoholic breweries in the country. Founder Tate Huffard, an outdoor enthusiast and new parent, was looking for ways to cut back on drinking alcohol. He started Best Day Brewing to celebrate life’s finer moments with great beer, but not the booze. Among Best Day’s most popular flavors: West …

Based in Sonoma, Cookma is an Ayurvedic line of meal kits designed to nourish young families. Food entrepreneur Lisa Chatham launched the line to inspire a cycle of self-care – particularly for new mothers seeking postpartum wellness. Rooted in Ayurveda, each Cookma meal kit offers a healing, restorative meal to bring balance and beauty to busy homes. Lisa, with a …

As an herbalist, Rachel Budde has a passion for plants and people. Rachel founded Fat and the Moon in Nevada City to provide handcrafted, herbal body care products to those seeking natural alternatives. The line is formulated by Rachel and her team of herbalists who design the products to feel like nourishing, magical potions. At its core, Fat and the …

Just outside of San Francisco’s Union Square, Del Popolo serves some of the best Neapolitan-style pizza in the city. Home cooks won’t miss the restaurant’s blistering hot ovens: Del Popolo’s signature fermented dough maintains its tangy chewiness, and bakes fast – it’s really just a few minutes before your pizza is done. Here at Driver’s, you’ll find two popular Del …

TCHO was born nearly 15 years ago out of a shared passion to reimagine the world of chocolate from the ground up. Curiosity ruled as the team set out to rethink the chocolate-making process, and bring resources directly to the farmers they partner with. Founded and operated in Berkeley by NASA and Wired Magazine alum, innovation through technology has always …

Amid the challenges of the pandemic, Nina V. lost her job. She suddenly had a lot of free time, and the holidays were approaching. Every Christmas, Nina and her mom made her grandmother’s toffee recipe to give as gifts. Friends and family loved the sweets, telling Nina it was really the best. She explored selling her toffee to the public, …