Best of the Bay 2026 Editors’ Pick: Rize Up Bakery

SoMa’s Howard Street is looking a lot brighter these days — just look for the brilliant yellow Aaron De La Cruz mural and you’ll be at Rize Up Sourdough’s new Test Kitchen Café (1160 Howard Street, SF). Black-owned, SF-based bakery Rize Up was launched by Azikiwee Anderson in his own backyard in 2020—it was such a lifeline to purchase bread from his doorstep in the early pandemic, and the business s provenance was especially poignant after George Floyd’s murder. Anderson s operation gave an outlet to converse about what was happening in the fresh air, grieving behind our flimsy masks. Azikiwee Anderson. Photo by Jeff Hunt via Storied SF. While Rize Up loaves and boules are now available in a number of stores and farmers’ markets in the Bay Area, it’s not always easy to find more than a few of the many varieties, which may be reason in itself to visit the Test Kitchen Café. (My personal favorite flavors are the gochujang-spiked K-Pop and the pleasingly purple ube boule.) T