FOUND's goods and services issue
Umami Mart, Wild Feather, Fellow, sunglasses, Après Vous, The Future Past, MORE
ABOUT FOUND • Goods & Services
Racked and ready
The internet is teeming with generic recommendations for everyday items sold at faceless stores. At FOUND, we’re focused on high quality (and often correspondingly high cost) products and shopping experiences recommended by real people — from perfect headphones to beguiling scents, special ceramics to gorgeous knives.
In addition to quality, we care about the intangibles of shopping at a special store or owning something transcendent. With each recommendation, ideally there’s a story involved, offering a window into the role this purchase or experience played in a person’s life (and/or could play in yours). We’re also keen on products and services with a connection to the Bay Area and surrounds.
Here, a sampler of Goods & Services pieces from the past year in FOUND:
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Suntory time
From sashimi knives and handcrafted cocktail stemware to specialty rice vinegars and Daruma dolls, Umami Mart is Oakland’s go-to for all things Japanese-made. The women-owned shop started as a food blog, but became a mainstay in The Town when it opened a decade ago. Its tightly edited collection of pantry goods, cookware, kitchen items, and barware — including branded collabs with Yukiwa and Ninomiya, two top precision barware makers in Japan — makes it a first stop for unique specialty gifts.
There’s also an expertly curated selection of shochus, Japanese whiskeys, and sake (co-owner Yoko Kumano has cred as a sake sommelier). A secret bar in the back serves up sake and shochu pours, plus meticulously minimal cocktails. Knowledgeable staff will help steer you if you’re interested in buying a bottle — prices range from everyday drinking to special occasion — and the bar will even pour you a taste to try before you buy. –Allison McCarthy
→ Umami Mart (Oakland) • 4027 Broadway • Tue 11a-6p, Wed-Sun 11a-7p.
–7/9/25
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Shake it
Between Outside Lands, Burning Man, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (Oct 3-5) Wild Feather has had a very busy sumer. Since 2012, those in the know have headed to its Lower Haight showroom in search of homegrown high-fashion festival clothes.
Designer Tamo Hulva opened Wild Feather as a brick-and-mortar source for her popular, dramatic, faux-fur-trimmed overcoat, which she calls The Baroness. That coat, in its many colors, fabrics, and variations, is still a staple in the store, along with faux-fur-lined ponchos and other rocker-style outerwear.
Hulva also carries the work of leather and jewelry designers, and others who build looks around feathers, and stretchy textiles. Garments span the gender continuum, with sequined hoodies, heavily patterned shirts, and metallic pants designed for male bodies, gowns and lingerie-styled looks for feminine dressers, and all-genders scarves, headpieces, and sunglasses.
While there’s a panoply of online retailers shilling low-cost outfits fit for a rave, Wild Feather remains the city’s best choice for thoughtfully designed party opulence you can wear more than once. –Jay Barmann
→ Wild Feather (Lower Haight) • 597 Haight St • Tue-Sun 12-6p.
–7/23/25
WORK • Friday Routine
Friendly fellow
JAKE MILLER • founder • Fellow
Neighborhood you live in: Noe Valley
It’s Friday morning. What’s the scene?
My day typically starts with a workout at 7a at Purple Patch — it's a strong community of washed-up athletes. Meanwhile, my lazy dog is still in bed, and I struggle to get him out for his morning walk. Every morning after our workout, we hang out for a bit at Dandelion Chocolate for coffee and granola.
What’s on the agenda for today?
This morning, I met with shareholders and had a call with board members for Fellow, my specialty coffee gear company. I spent two hours on design review for new products. We reviewed and made some final decisions on full models, prototypes, and renderings. Then, I met with teams across the organization to ensure that everyone’s working on the right things. I can share this now that it's available for pre-sale, but we've been working tirelessly on Espresso Series 1, our first-ever espresso machine and most ambitious product yet.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Dandelion Bloom Salon has a great seating area where you can just hang out. It feels very European. The Coffee Movement on Balboa in the Inner Richmond is awesome. Noe Valley Bakery — I'm more of a cookie guy than a full dinner guy. And I’ll walk down the street to Saru Sushi, a great little sushi bar.
Any weekend getaways?
We have a Fellow store located on Abbot Kinney, which is just a short flight away, so I love visiting Los Angeles and the Venice neighborhood where the store is. Also, I make it a point to make it to Big Sur quarterly for long weekends. When I want to keep it low-key, there is an incredible Zen center there that offers silent retreats.
What was your last great vacation?
I can't sit on a beach for long, so when I go to Hawaii, I like to stay at the Mauna Lani Hotel on the Big Island. On my last visit, I swam, biked, and ran every day — one day I biked for nine hours straight and then got to come back and relax by the pool. The poke from a random grocery store counter is always the best in Hawaii.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
An Ooni pizza oven!
–5/23/25
GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of the Bay Area’s best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundsf.com. For the full archives, click here.
Sunglasses
Pacific Rims Optometry (Sunset, West Portal), best for unusual prescription lenses, vintage repairs
Optical Underground (Hayes Valley), overstock and designer discounts, great service
See Saw Seen (Hayes Valley), proprietary collections, cool designs
Bottega Veneta (Union Square), deeply Italo-chic
See Eyewear (Downtown), widest selection, lots of sales
Spectacles for Humans (Noe Valley), high-end, uncommon brands, hands-on service
Veo Optics (Marina, Mission), McQueen, Dior, and Persol
Eyedare (Mission), well-curated selection, eye exams available
San Francisco Optics by Alexander Daas (Marina), high-end frames, singular designer
–6/18/25
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Open door
Opened in the Parkside last year, Après Vous is a gourmet grocery and grab-and-go shop in a generously sized corner space that last housed Guerra’s To Go. (The original Guerra Quality Meats is still chopping it up across the street.) Co-owner Richard Chagniot is a French-trained chef who previously ran Guerra’s catering operation, while partner Stan Gee has history at the Alembic, MarketBar, and Bix.
Cross the black-and-white checkerboard floors to peruse the perimeter, lined with retail shelves and cold cases stocked with a selection of cheese (like fabulously stinky époisses), housemade pâté (forestier flecked with mushrooms), tinned fish (from Portugal), fancy potato chips (from Spain), and more of life’s necessities.
Then hit the hot bar, which offers a few options for lunch, and goes in on dinner, starting fresh at 3p. The soup du jour might be potato leek, salads could feature fluffy couscous, and comforts like lasagna and stuffed mushrooms are in regular rotation. Boeuf Bourguignon is only on Wednesdays, salmon filets come with beurre blanc, and crispy sausage links float on rafts of cassoulet beans. There’s also a freezer full of desserts (some even flown in from Italy) for a personal pudding cup full of chocolate mousse, cheesecake, or lemon tart.
A couple small bistro tables are tucked inside, but most people scurry home with the goods while they’re still hot. –Becky Duffett
→ Après Vous (Parkside) • 345 Taraval St • Mon-Sat 10a-7p.
–5/14/25
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
True blue
The once novel idea of “sustainability” has been transformed into a tiresome buzzword in recent years, which is unfortunate — especially when someone’s executing on its core concept with excellence and style. That’s the case at Clement Street’s The Future Past, a business that marries the best bits of vintage discovery and an insightful tailor with deep and abiding denim nerdery.
Spin through its ground floor garment racks, packed with classic denim, ‘70s-’80s designer finds, and a smattering of new maker-created items. Then look upward to the studio, where its talented team reworks beloved garments that in other hands might be beyond repair. We all have that pair of jeans with an incredible, hard-won wash that’s falling apart or no longer fits the way we want. Bring those sad rags in and watch sergers buzz through selvage as staffers Sashiko-stitch pockets, posteriors, and patellas.
If this sounds like hyperbole, take a look at the shop’s Instagram, which features vintage jeans they’ve returned from the dead. It’s proof that true “sustainability” is alive and well in Inner Richmond. –Eve Batey
→ Shop: The Future Past • 12 Clement St (Inner Richmond) • Wed-Sun 11a-5p.
–11/06/24