A tour around San Francisco's Ferry Building and marketplace

The recent transformation of the historic 1898 San Francisco Ferry Building has transformed the elegant two-story skylit structure into a soaring European-style food hall, with specialty purveyors, restaurants, and culinary-oriented shops inside, plus an outdoor farmers’ market in Ferry Plaza that attracts more than 25,000 people a week.

Two arcades lead to the sweeping interior arches of the building’s central nave, which comprises the main food hall. Highlights here include Heath Ceramics, a shop with beautiful mid-century style housewares; tastings of citrus-infused extra-virgin olive oil from McEvoy Ranch; fresh bread at Acme Bread Company, which bakes loaves of all varieties from organic flour in an on-premises hearth oven; salumi at Boccalone; and wild exotic mushrooms at Far West Funghi’s food stall. The building still functions as a ferry terminal, with boats that connect San Francisco with destinations around the bay.