Bluxome Street Winery Popping Up at Ghirardelli Square

Later this fall, SoMa-based Bluxome Street Winery is teaming up with Ghirardelli Square to open a second tasting room in the Woolen Building. The tasting "annex," as it's being billed, is planned as a six-month pop-up for now and will have similar glasses and flights for tasting as the original location in SoMa, plus pre-packaged food, like cheeses, crackers and nuts, from artisans Bluxome has featured before. There will sadly be no chocolate on site, but Bluxome is moving into the building just one floor below the new Ghirardelli tasting room, so it'll be plenty close, even sharing a solarium and outside patio that has a clear view of Alcatraz. The few thousand-square-feet space will have a factory feel with lots of wooden beams, as the building used to manufacture Civil War uniforms and later make Ghirardelli chocolate.

Bluxome Street Winery's operating partner Peter Chouinard told Eater that they're excited to reach an entirely new demographic. "We've done a great job of interacting with the locals, but with Ghirardelli Square we're hoping to provide a more convenient location for all the locals in North Beach and all the tourists that come," he said. According to Chouinard, 16 million tourists visit San Francisco each year, with up to 40,000 a day stopping by Ghirardelli Square. "We want to get in front of tourists and somehow get our portion of the 16 million," he said.

The physical space will be ready in about 30 days, and after that, it's just a matter of licensing coming through, though they anticipate it opening before the holidays. Bluxome applied for six-month pop-up licensing, as that's faster to procure, but they are already in discussions with Ghirardelli about a more long-term partnership. Stay tuned for more updates.