Boudin Bakery • 1849

The mother dough at the heart of every loaf here has been fed and nurtured since 1849, when Isidore Boudin brought his Burgundian baking tradition to Gold Rush San Francisco. What began as a single French bakery became the city's oldest continually operating business, its tangy sourdough starter passing through generations of bakers who guard it like liquid gold. Today, the flagship on Jefferson Street serves that same bread hollowed out and brimming with clam chowder, while glass-walled baking rooms let crowds watch the ancient starter work its magic in real time.