Vallejo’s Anchor Pantry has your holiday cravings covered

VALLEJO — When you visit Anchor Pantry Gourmet Goods in downtown Vallejo you enter a realm of delights. From imported chocolates, coffees, cookies, charcuterie, cheeses and sauces to gourmet salts, candies, unique spices and mixers for cocktails, you will find ingredients to elevate any dish and impress your guests. And Anchor Pantry is the only store in town that offers Acme bread.

“I would say that Acme bread is the biggest draw,” said Jessica Brooks, the owner of Anchor Pantry, located at 620 Marin St. “Acme has almost like a cult following in the Bay Area. They’ve been around since 1981 and their ingredients are top quality, none of the bread has preservatives. It’s crusty European style bread.” And, she added, when people come to the store for the bread, they often leave with something else: a spread, a sauce or a cheese.

A resident of Vallejo since 2011, Brooks felt the city had a gap. “I was missing that gourmet aspect of being able to shop for spices that were harder to get, the kind of things that maybe someone with a cookbook needs when they want to try new things, slightly more unique ingredients than Safeway offered,” Brooks said. 

During the pandemic, she decided to open the store she missed instead of working for others. She opened Anchor Pantry in a tiny space on Marin Street in April 2021. “I just started small and thought, well, this is an experiment to see how it goes, right?” Brooks said. “Within a year, I had a pretty big following and I decided that it was a good thing for Vallejo.”

Then disaster struck. In May 2022, when she had been in business for only 13 months, a person with a history of mental health issues and arson set fire to her wooden door one night.  The store and almost all her merchandise went up in flames.

Alibi Bookshop set up a fundraiser to help the business recover and the community rallied. Within weeks, they raised $55,000. Brooks got a lease for a bigger location at 620 Marin St., right in front of the old store.

“The outpouring of support that I got from people was very touching and very special,” Brooks said. “I kind of felt obligated, but in a good way, to open as soon as possible.”

The funds collected allowed her to pay the deposit, first and last month’s rent on the new location, buy a new industrial refrigerator, replenish all the stock and set up the store. Only 12 weeks after the fire, she reopened in the new space.

The success of Anchor Pantry has a lot to do with Brooks’ background in gourmet food and management. She was always a foodie. As a kid she learned how to bake cookies, cakes and pies and to make jams and jellies from her grandmother, while her father taught her how to cook. 

In high school, she took a regional occupational program which included running a restaurant on campus. She got an associate’s degree in cooking at Cabrillo Community College, and a degree in hospitality management from San Francisco State University. 

After graduation, she worked as a manager for five years for A.G. Ferrari Foods, an Italian company that imported gourmet goods. Then she went into retail management in other types of businesses but returned to the food environment managing the olive oil tasting room at Il Fiorello.

Brooks’ passion for food and management experience have helped her steer Anchor Pantry to its success. Another factor is the way she chooses what to carry in the store.

“I keep my eye on the pulse of the food world, mostly online,” she explained. “I get emails from different companies showing what the hottest products are. There’s a lot of food contests around the country, and I bring in some of the award winning foods. And a lot of my products are actually recommendations by customers.”

Anchor Pantry keeps up with current trends. Asian ingredients like matcha, yuzu and miso fly off the shelves. Non-alcoholic cocktail ingredients like bitters, mixes and mocktails are also big sellers now that people are drinking less.

Brooks also sells holiday goods throughout the year. “I bring in special candies for Valentine's, heart boxes and different fun things to give. Then I bring in special teas, cookies and jams for Mother's Day and Easter,” she said.

For Thanksgiving, she offers pumpkin pie spice, chestnuts, cannoli shells, cranberry sauce,  mulling spices to mull wine and cider, and freshly squeezed apple cider.

Christmas has the biggest array of special foods, including many different kinds of panettone, pan forte, German Lebkuchen, which is a spiced kind of cake, and American treats, like chocolate bars with Santa on them. “Things that make it nice to put together gifts for people, that look festive for the holidays,” she said.

Brooks has expanded her store over time, more recently removing the curtains that bordered the left side to open a new room where she has dry goods, yogurts and more. It will soon include Italian gelatos. 

“We'll be scooping gelato every day that we're open,” she said. She’ll offer some vegan options, sorbets, and traditional gelato made with dairy. Customers will also be able to order floats and sundaes.

Although Anchor Pantry sells gourmet goods, Brooks has made a point of offering a range of prices. “We might have a $4 chocolate bar and we might also have a $16 chocolate bar, but at least we have variety, showing that anyone can come here and find something that they would like to try,” she said.

Her love for Vallejo and its community dictated her choice of logo. “I wanted the logo to be a little bit bold, in the sense that it was kind of utilitarian, and to not look too fancy and not feel too posh or snobby,” she said. “I wanted a place where everybody feels comfortable coming.” 

The logo includes an anchor to showcase the naval history of Vallejo, and a mare, referencing the history of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo’s mare, which allegedly swam to land when his ship sank and gave its name to Mare Island. 

But the anchor, Brooks said, is also a play on words, reflecting her desire “to make Anchor Pantry an anchor in the community, a place that really anchors downtown together.”

Anchor Pantry is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. During the holidays the schedule expands. “Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s we are open also on Sundays and the week of Christmas we open every single day, including Monday,” said Brooks.

To double check the schedule Brooks recommends calling (707) 704-7413. You can also order online and pick up at the store.