The Lowdown
Restaurant Name: Bi-Rite Creamery
Cuisine: Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt
Average Price per Person: It’s $7.99 / pint, which serves 2-3 people
Location: San Francisco, California, USA (please refer to the map below for details)
Recommendations: I only had the Salted Caramel… but yeah go for it.Ratings (out of 5)
Taste: 4.5
Creativity/Authenticity: 4
Atmosphere: N/A
Service: N/A
Bang for Buck: 5
Crayscale !!!
Salted caramel. It’s flavor that has become this seemingly familiar and comfortable taste, but repackaged in a more refined offering. While its roots lay back in France, the sweet-salty combo has become almost universally embraced by North American culture, and not just within the realm of the food-loving community, but the MASSES. For several years, the likes of big retailers were getting into it, some referencing its popularity to the reemergence of dulce de leche. On my recent trip to San Francisco, the homie Alex Valdman suggested we check out a little ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery after a dinner right by Namu Gaji. To be honest, if you’ve been around SF, I’m pretty sure you’ve had their ice cream since it’s massively popular on Yelp.
Salted caramel in itself is not a flavor I gravitate heavily towards but I have to say this was a pleasant surprise. It isn’t just a straight up two-pronged attack with simply salty sweetness but a more complex profile. There’s a bit of burnt bitterness that is totally welcome. We’re not here to be all pretentious and try to explain something we honestly don’t really comprehend other than the fact that it tastes ON POINT.
If you’re outside of the Bay Area (which does an amazing job of taking into account all factors of the food production chain), you may not reallllllllllllly care about how Bi-Rite creates its ice cream but regardless it’s noble to really respect the process as they utilize Straus Family Creamery organic dairy a mere 45 miles away in addition to seasonal ingredients for some of the most intensely flavored ice cream around. Check their website for the full story.
This is the OG spot that started it all, a neighborhood grocer that happened to expand into delicious iced treats. It’s just across the street and the inside is hella trippy and cozy to say the least.
Don’t let the looks fool you, it was (and since this was in the Bay Area) HELLA creamy and not chunky with ice.
They have some other baked goods but couldn’t say it was a strong enough drawing point away from the main attraction.
It looked like peanut butter.
But was sooooo much better.
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3692 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
p: 1.415.626.5600
w: biritecreamery.com
