Business Briefs: Gay-Owned Local Jam Company Looks to Expand

Two dozen washed pears sit piled in Jake Blaine 's home kitchen ready to be pared and sliced. This June morning Blaine is making a batch of Amaretto pear butter.

"I like this apartment. It has ample kitchen space," said Blaine, 33, the cook and proprietor behind Jake's Castro Kitchen.

The San Francisco-based company sells an assortment of jams, jellies, butters and chutneys all made from scratch by Blaine. The company's name is now a misnomer, as Blaine and his partner, Clint Higgins , moved out of the Castro apartment they had been renting after being burglarized and into an apartment tower in the central Market Street corridor.

Since the business began in the city's gay neighborhood, they have no plans to change the name. The brand has quickly gained a following and continues to expand since its official launch in February of 2013.

"We started in the Castro and that is the name we want to keep," said Blaine, who was an award-winning pastry chef back in his home state of Utah.

It was there, on his grandmother's farm, that Blaine first learned how to make summer peach jam as a child.

"Growing up Mormon, what do you do? You grow a big garden and can it all," said the former Salt Lake City resident.

He has incorporated a few of his family's recipes into his business, but Blaine has created most by experimenting in his kitchen. One batch can take up to 8 hours from start to finish, said Blaine.

He is beginning to rename his offerings to have more whimsy, so a strawberry, rhubarb with vanilla bean jam will be labeled ruby red slipper jam. A ginger plum jam will be called dance of the ginger plum fairy.

He and Higgins moved to the Bay Area after a downtown hotel hired Blaine as its in-house pastry chef. Five months later the hotel job was no more and he was out of work.

"Really, it was a stressful job and a huge weight off my shoulder," recalled Blaine.

One day he "went overboard" making a batch of strawberry jam and found himself with 20 pints. Higgins suggested selling it, and "he has regretted it ever since," joked Blaine.

"No, it's been fun," interjected Higgins, who helps market Jake's Castro Kitchen products when he is not working at his own full-time job creating online tutorial trainings.

To date Blaine's best seller has been a raspberry jalapeno jam. He also makes a bacon jam, which Blaine suggests using on bacon sandwiches, baked potatoes, or in potato salads.

Other customer favorites are a blueberry Meyer lemon jam and a quadberry jam. They retail for $5 for 5 ounce jars, and Blaine has created a pamphlet with suggestions for how to use his various products.

"One of our goals is to show people there is more to do with jam than just putting it on toast," said Higgins.

In addition to ordering online at www.jakescastrokitchen.com/home.html, Blaine's products are sold at Eureka Caf� in the Castro, the Noe Valley shop Olive This Olive That and the Kitchener Collective in Corte Madera.

Blaine also sells his jams at various pop-up markets, such as the Treasure Island Flea in San Francisco, Jack of All Trades in Oakland's Jack London Square, and the monthly GOOD: street food + design market in Sacramento.

"It is going really good now. We have found all these markets and are trying to get into more retail stores," said Higgins. "If you want to be successful, you have to go out and find opportunities. They don't come to you."

Jake's Castro Kitchen is likely to move again, and out of a home-based kitchen, within the next year as Blaine continues to grow and expand his business.

"We are already looking into renting a commercial kitchen," said Blaine. "By the end of the year I hope to bring on additional help. I can't keep up."

New Mexican Eatery Readies to Open

Bandidos, the new Mexican eatery headed to upper Market Street in the Castro, is preparing to open in early August.

Initially expected in time for Pride, co-owners Jesse Woodward and Dana Gleim have had to push back their timeline due to construction issues with the corner storefront at Market and 15th Streets in the ground floor of a new mixed-use residential development known as The Century.

"Since it is a brand new building, we have to build out the kitchen from scratch and we have to build out the bathrooms from scratch," said Woodward, 37, who with Gleim also co-owns the gay sports bar Hi Tops on the same block of Market Street where the restaurant will be located.

Leticia Luna, who owns the building at 2200 Market Street, initially had planned to lease the nearly 3,000 square foot space to a bank. But after the city last summer imposed an 18-month moratorium on financial businesses opening along upper Market Street, she approached the Hi Tops team about operating a restaurant instead. For years Luna had owned her own Mexican restaurant at the site.

They opted for a Mexican sit-down eatery, explained Woodward, "because we thought it was filling a niche" in the gay Castro district, where the only options are quick service taquerias.

Gleim, 41, who like Woodward identifies as gay, added, "Plus, it is our favorite food. We love tequila, we love tacos, and we love margaritas."

She described the d�cor for Bandidos as being "something unexpected," although when customers walk in they "will feel like they are in a Mexican restaurant."

It will feature black and white tiles, a communal table, and round leather banquettes for parties of six to eight people. The designer is Craige Walters, who also designed the look of Hi Tops.

The co-owners have brought on two lesbian chefs to oversee the menu. Jamie Lauren, who appeared on the TV show Top Chef, oversaw its creation and Christina Aviles will serve as the executive chef when Bandidos opens. The new restaurant will employ up to 40 people.

There will be eight different tacos, available in corn, flour, or fried versions, fajitas, and albondigas or Mexican meatballs. Prices will run from $10 for two tacos up to $18 for entrees.

"There are a lot of traditional items with a little twist," explained Gleim.

The 125-seat eatery will include a bar area with seating for 10 and outdoor seating for roughly a dozen diners. The hours will likely be from 4 or 5 to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and to midnight Fridays. Brunch will begin at 10 or 11 a.m. on weekends, closing Saturdays at midnight and Sundays at 11 p.m.

Gleim and Woodward are shooting to open Bandidos the first week of August, and they are already eying other business possibilities in the neighborhood as more new housing is built above ground floor retail along upper Market Street.

"We would love to" open a third business, said Woodward. "It is still surprising to us there are a lot of vacant spaces in the Castro. We would love to continue contributing."

Time for a Picnic

The fast casual Vietnamese-inspired Urban Picnic officially opened its second location on July 1 in the Castro, though the eatery at 4039 18th Street soft-opened in late June.

Formerly housing the restaurant Zadin, the 1,650 square foot space received a full makeover from Zero Ten Design. The full service restaurant sports an "outdoors in" d�cor, with seating for 35 that evokes picnic tables.

The company updated its menu for the Castro location to include new additions such as its superfood salad (a blend of kale, spring mix, cabbage, carrots, raisins, grapes, coconut, and sunflower seeds) with a ginger lemongrass chia vinaigrette, a Sriracha lime chicken sandwich, and a Sriracha lime tofu sandwich. Among the top sellers so far are a kale quinoa salad and chicken pho.

Beer and wine are also on the menu, including gluten free and organic beer. The store plans to soon start delivery service.

"We are excited to bring healthy eating to a neighborhood that values health and wellness in their daily lifestyles. By opening in the Castro, we can finally cater to the community 7-days a week, including holiday weekends and late evenings," said owner Trang Nguyen.

Urban Picnic is open weekdays at 10:30 a.m., closing Mondays through Wednesdays at 10 p.m. and at 11 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays. It opens at 9 a.m. weekends, closing Saturdays at 11 p.m. and Sundays at 10 p.m.

For more information, visit http://www.urbanpicniceatery.com

Honor Roll

Throughout Pride month in June La Boulange , the San Francisco-based French-inspired chain of cafes, once again sold rainbow macarons with a $1 for each box purchased earmarked for the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation . This year's fundraiser netted $2,079 for the local charity, far surpassing the 2013 total of $1,764.