Anchor Pantry opens in downtown
Some of the best places in town have opened up because residents here saw a need for them and had a passion to match. Anchor Pantry is the newest store in that echelon, and it has its grand opening on Saturday.
Anchor Pantry stocks a panoply of gourmet sauces, condiments, sweets, vinegars, oils, syrups, and drink mixers, and has dozens of spices that are near impossible to find in Vallejo, from Aleppo pepper to za’atar.
“The store is for anyone who really appreciates higher-quality ingredients,” says owner and Vallejo resident Jessica Brooks.
Brooks has nearly 30 years’ experience working with gourmet foods and higher-end products, from fine olive oils and cheeses to premier skin care lines. She has a degree in hotel and restaurant management and worked as a chef in places like Skates On the Bay in Berkeley and Enoteca in Albany.
But Vallejo is where she set down roots in 2011. Like many people who love to cook, she soon found herself scrambling for interesting ingredients. She has seen the perennial petition to bring Trader Joe’s to town, which perennially falls on deaf ears, and she was tired of driving to Pinole or Napa for pantry items.
It was time to take matters into her own hands.
“I needed to stop griping about it and just do it,” she says. “Cooking comes naturally to me. It’s one of my main loves, and when you are doing something that you truly love it doesn’t feel as much like work. I also want to build community here; this place is something we are sorely lacking.”
When she found out that her friend’s store Spruce was going to be available, she jumped at the chance to start her business on Marin Street.
“I was waiting for the right spot,” she said. “I wasn’t going to open until it was perfect.”
And the location already seems to be working in her favor, with several people walking by on Friday asking when her doors would open.
She had the dream and she found the spot, she just needed a name. Anchor Pantry was chosen as a nod to Vallejo’s maritime past, and the horse in her logo is in homage to Mare Island, which, as lore tells, was so named after ship-wrecked horses on Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo’s vessel swam to the land that is now Mare Island. There’s also the fact that Brooks, who has many traditional tattoos, has a gorgeous anchor emblazoned on her calf.
The shop’s shelves are lined with products from small, artisan businesses, many of which are run by women. When possible, she has chosen items that have a social impact, such as higher-than-fair trade priced coffee or ingredients that are sustainably produced.
The future of the store depends a lot on what her customers want, she says.
Eventually she’d love to have a cold case for things like gourmet cheese (she was the cheesemonger for AG Ferrari Foods) with companies like Cowgirl Creamery and Cypress Grove.
For now, Acme will be delivering fresh loaves of things like pain au levain, batard, New York rye, olive loaves, baguettes, and walnut levain four days a week, but she can add more if the demand is there, she said.
The Anchor Pantry grand opening begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday and will run until 3 p.m. Anchor is located at 617 Marin St., in downtown Vallejo.
The shop’s hours are Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 6 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is open Sundays by appointment.
To reach the store, call 707-704-7413. The website, anchorpantry.com, is coming soon.