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Serves Delicious, Healthy Food In Sustainable Spaces

After your early morning jog along the Embarcadero, stop at The Plant Café on Pier 3 and grab a Healthy Sunrise blend of five juices or a mango smoothie. Later on your way to work, stop at the downtown Plant on California Street for breakfast, maybe Avocado Toast on levain bread or a Breakfast Burrito of scrambled eggs or basil pesto tofu scramble.

While standing in line for lunch with a couple of office mates at the Plant’s second Financial District restaurant at 250 Montgomery Street, decide whether to order a roasted chicken and avocado sandwich or a green curry bowl and kale salad. Treat yourself to a slice of vegan carrot cake as a mid-afternoon snack from The Plant on Steiner at Chestnut in the Marina. When you are ready, order online the Plant’s signature cleanse program of raw organic vegetable and fruit juices.

After work, linger at the zinc-topped bar at the Plant restaurant at Pier 3. Sip an Organic Cosmos (vodka and fruit) or Pear 3, a Plant signature cocktail (pear liqueur, Ice Blue Vodka, and Hibiscus liqueur) or a sustainable glass of wine. For dinner, sit on the patio with a stunning view of the Bay Bridge while savoring oysters and crispy citrus Muscovy duck breast or seared Ahi tuna.

And, as you dash through San Francisco International Airport to catch the red-eye to the East Coast, pick up a vegetarian Plant Burger made with lentils, mushrooms, beets, and cashews in the fast-food area of Terminal 2 for a healthy late night snack.

The food at all eight Plant locales is 100 percent organic and locally and sustainably grown. California fusion dishes—for vegans, vegetarians, and poultry and fish eaters—fill the menus.

Slightly more than a decade ago, Matthew Guelke and Mark Lewis left the tech industry to bring their version of delicious and healthy eating to San Francisco. Their vision: artisanal organic food served in sustainably designed spaces.

They opened a small spot in the Marina in 2005. Two years later, the highly acclaimed 1,400 square foot restaurant at Pier 3 opened. The other six Plant restaurant-cafes are in the Marina, at 101 California and 250 Montgomery, in Dogpatch, SFO, Burlingame, and Strawberry Village in Mill Valley. Hours vary depending on location.

The Plants use ingredients and produce from the rich array of farmers in the Bay Area and beyond. Some are the farmers who sell their produce at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Sourcing from small local growers allows the Plants to serve fresh food and create seasonal menus.

A few minutes north of the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero, the casual yet contemporary Plant at Pier 3 is stunning. The dining room’s 18-foot-high ceiling and use of natural, unvarnished, and recycled wood and steel retain the building’s origins as a shipping warehouse. There is an open gas burning pizza oven at foot of the long bar. Large windows afford diners a window onto the Embarcadero. The roof top solar system supplies about 20 percent of the restaurant’s electricity. The kitchen and restaurant are separated by an outdoor walkway.

The Plant at Pier 3 is revitalized from an early 1900s warehouse and a once busy cargo terminal. The original buildings along the Embarcadero with their massive facades were part of the turn-of-the-century City Beautiful movement. The buildings north of the Ferry Building were designed in the Beaux-Arts style; the buildings to the south in Mission and Gothic styles.

By the 1960s, railroad freight and container shipping and the rise of the ports of Oakland and Los Angeles spelled the demise of the architecturally dramatic San Francisco piers. As a result of the renovation of the waterfront completed in 2006, Piers 1, 1 ½, 3 and 5—the Central Embarcadero Piers Historic District—are now filled with offices and restaurants popular with residents and tourists.

The Plant has been called “the greenest restaurant” in San Francisco because of its menu and its design. SF Weekly named The Plant Café the Best Vegetarian Restaurant. Theculturetrip.com called it one of the 12 best ethical chain restaurants in the U.S. because of its dedicated to sustainability, ethical sourcing and social responsibility.