Recent transplants from Portland and ice cream fiends who've traveled there in the last few years are likely familiar with Salt & Straw, the Pok Pok-adjacent ice creamery that consistently draws long lines daily in the PDX, much like Bi-Rite Creamery does here, rain or shine. They've recently expanded with four locations in Los Angeles, and up next, as Eater reports, will be two shops in San Francisco, beginning with one in Pacific Heights at 2201 Fillmore Street, coming in spring 2017. Sooner than that, next week, Salt & Straw will be doing a pop-up here, though it looks like the location has yet to be revealed. (Stay tuned.)
They also have revealed that a second Salt & Straw will open at a later date in Hayes Valley, in a new building at Hayes and Laguna, per the Chronicle. In other words: Bi-Rite and Humphry Slocombe, watch out.
Kim Malek tells the Chronicle it didn't take long to settle on the Fillmore Street location, formerly home to Evolution Fresh juice bar. "This building just felt like the epitome of that idea of a community gathering place. We knew it right when we saw it," she says.
Salt & Straw debuted their first scoop shop five years ago in Portland's NE quadrant, in the Arts District on NW Alberta Street, delighting Portlanders with their new-school flavor experiments like Pear & Blue Cheese, Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons, and Fennel Five-Spiced Egg Nog. They soon opened two other shops in Portland, and now four more in LA, and owners Kim and Tyler Malek tell Eater they're now excited to create seasonal, SF-specific flavors like they have in these other two cities in Portland, for instance, they've got a fruitcake flavor inspired by bicycling Congressman Earl Blumenauer, which I assume is a compliment?
Getting the scoop at @KGWNews on @saltandstraw's Fruitcake Ice Cream w/ @repblumenauer. Proceeds benefit the CCC! #nevertooearlyforicecream pic.twitter.com/3FL3h0hxzC
— CommunityCyclingCtr (@CommCyclingCtr) November 21, 2016
Also notable, they do soft-serve at their Portland-only (so far) Wiz Bang Bar, which features sundaes and childhood favorites and where they once had an Oregon Ham soft-serve flavor.
They've pulled off an impressive ice cream stunt the last couple years around Thanksgiving, creating a collection of limited edition flavors for the holiday that form a full Thanksgiving feast, like Salted Caramel Roast Turkey, Buttered Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole with Maple Pecans, and Cranberry Walnut Stuffing. BuzzFeed did a tasting of this year's Thanksgiving collection and gave most of the flavors pretty high marks and for every pint of the limited edition collection sold, they donate a pint of ice cream to local nonprofits working to end food insecurity.
Love our Thanksgiving flavors? Hurry in to grab a scoop before they disappear! pic.twitter.com/eyIkHiooxA
— Salt & Straw (@saltandstraw) November 21, 2016
Similarly, they say, their San Francisco shops will have a charitable angle, making donations to local schools.
We'll update you as we learn more, but if you want the immediate goods you may want to follow them on Instagram for news about the pop-up starting December 5.