After more than two years of planning, several community meetings and a new partnership with Italian eatery Piazza Pelligrini, North Beach's farmers market is returning this weekend.
On Saturday, the new market will take over a parking lot next to Piazza Pellegrini at 699 Columbus Ave. (at Filbert Street), and will be held each weekend through December from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
According to North Beach Neighbors president Danny Sauter, the organization helped spearhead the effort to bring back the neighborhood and will assist with staffing. Piazza Pellegrini will manage the market's operations, he added.
"The vision was to create a weekly market where neighbors can count on both fresh produce and the chance to bump into their neighbors and meet one another," Sauter said via email.
Nearly a dozen farmers will participate each week, he said, with a selection of items rotating "with the seasons."
So far, participating farms include Tomales Farmstead Creamery, Pasture 42, Swanton Berry Farm, and Veliz Organics.
A North Beach Farmers Market operated for a few years near the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Mason Street beginning in 2010 that was managed by a now-defunct organization called Urban Table.
Also we are closing the North Beach Farmers Mkt too. We appreciate everyone who supported. We are operating at a more sustainable level now.
— UrbanTable (@UrbanTable) July 1, 2013
In July 2013, the group said it would shutter the market due to a lack of customers.
As we reported in 2016, efforts were underway to find a new location in the neighborhood, including a proposal to block Green Street between Columbus and Grant Avenues.
Several business owners, however, were concerned that the market and potential street closures would be detrimental to their operations.
Other locations, including Joe DiMaggio Playground and Washington Square Park were floated, but ultimately scrapped.
At the time, North Beach Neighbors set up a committee to gauge neighborhood interest, along with a Change.org petition.
"Though we've been involved in dozens of projects, from street cleaning to advocating for the Central Subway, time and time again the project that folks have been most interested in has been the Farmers Market," said Sauter.
Sauter said the impetus for the project stems from conversations with Piazza Pellegrini owner Dario Hadjian, who expressed a desire to open a market.
"It's taken longer than we would have liked, but we couldn't be more thrilled to open the Market this Saturday," he said. "We feel this is a promise we made to our members, and to the community at large, and it's time we deliver on it."