Belcampo Turns Bones Into Gold with $5 Cups of Bone Broth

Bone broth has become the latest trend in food, with both paleo adherents and garden-variety eaters touting its nutritive properties, which are said to do everything from heal inflammation to improve skin and hair. (Kobe Bryant is a big fan, and credits it for keeping him going in the NBA at the advanced-for-basketball age of 36.) The broth is made by roasting and then stewing animal bones, extracting collagen, minerals, and other nutrients into the clear liquid. Devotees of the Paleo diet, which forbids coffee and tea, have been known to drink it in a paper cup for breakfast, aided by chefs like NYC's Marco Canora, who owns the East Village's megahit new bone broth window, Brodo.

Now, the bone broth trend has made its way to SF, specifically the Bay Area-based sustainable butcher-restaurant Belcampo Meat Co. Belcampo's locations in SF and Palo Alto (as well as in downtown L.A. and Santa Barbara) are now selling to-go cups of broth, made from pork, beef, and lamb bones and pork skin, for a staggering $5 per 12-ounce cup. As at Canora's restaurant, the broth can be customized with 50-cent add-ons, including hot sauce, garlic sauce, minced cilantro, onions, or coconut milk and mushrooms. Diners can also pick up a quart of bone broth for their home freezer, which runs $10. Considering the triple punch of the Bay Area's health-conscious population, penchant for whole-animal butchery, and desire to turn a quick buck on food fads, we imagine this is only the beginning of a long and successful bone-broth reign.