SF Tastemakers: Sam Mogannam and Anne Walker, Owners of Bi-Rite Market & Creamery and 18 Reasons

Sam Mogannam has been referred to, more than once, as the mayor of 18th Street. See him in action—waving to the delivery guy, hugging a regular—and it’s hard not to second the motion. Of Bi-Rite Market, a business his father and uncle took over in 1964 and that he and his brother Raphael assumed operation of in 1997, he says, “We’re like a piece of heirloom fruit—a family and locally-owned business in San Francisco is an endangered species.” Many credit Sam for the resurrection of what’s been described as SF’s own “gourmet ghetto”—Delfina opened five months after Bi-Rite, in turn paving the way for Tartine. In 2002, Mogannam opened the Creamery—which is overseen in part by his wife Anne, a pastry chef by trade—because he needed a space where Bi-Rite’s desserts could be made. Their wildly popular ice cream was actually an afterthought. Sam says that not a week goes by that they don’t get an offer to open a second Bi-Rite, but for now they’re sticking close to home. To prove this, in the summer of 2008, they opened 18 Reasons down the street, a not-for-profit that hosts producer dinners, tastings and classes, and this winter, the Creamery will expand into the space next door. Sam recently signed another lease on 18th Street—for which the business is TBD. Sam will also be dispensing his grocer’s wisdom in a cookbook scheduled for release by Ten Speed Press in the fall of 2011. In the meantime though, get out of his way—he’s got a block to tend to.