Vegan Bakery Near Me in the Ferry Building: Mariposa's Gluten-Free Vegan Bakes

Mariposa Baking Co. is a 100% gluten-free bakery, and a good share of what it bakes is also vegan: tagged dairy-free, egg-free and plant-based on the company's own product list. Its San Francisco counter is Shop 32 inside the Ferry Building, at the southeast end between Far West Fungi and Recchiuti Chocolates. If you searched vegan bakery near me and you also avoid gluten, this is one of the few counters downtown where both boxes get ticked at once.

What makes Mariposa different is the order of priorities. Everything is baked from scratch in a dedicated gluten-free bakery in Oakland and delivered to San Francisco daily, so there is no wheat flour in the building. Vegan items are a second layer on top of that. That matters for anyone with celiac disease who also eats plant-based, because most vegan bakeries still use wheat, and most gluten-free bakeries lean heavily on butter and eggs.

The most reliable vegan order at the SF counter is savory. The Empanada, $8.75 on the San Francisco cafe menu, is filled with organic potatoes, carrots, red onions and peas, and the menu describes it as a vegan pastry that combines Indian spices in a South American hand pocket. The listing says no known allergens. Mariposa's pockets are also sold in the shop to take home and bake, which makes the empanada a decent picnic or train snack.

For a sit-down lunch, the Vegan Delight sandwich costs $13.50. It layers vegan cream cheese with tomato, cucumber, red onion and arugula, finished with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper, on a vegan gluten-free sandwich roll. Note that the vegan cream cheese contains nuts. One trap to avoid: the bagel with cream cheese, $8.50, can be ordered with vegan cream cheese, but the menu lists the gluten-free bagels as containing eggs, so that one is not vegan.

On the sweet side, the company's product list tags several bakes as vegan. The Apple Cinnamon Hand Pie, described as a vegan dessert for one, and the seasonal Pumpkin Hand Pie, a flaky crust around lightly spiced pumpkin, are $7.75 each on the Oakland pickup menu. The Chocolate Cupcake with whipped frosting is $6. The SF counter stocks a daily selection sent over from Oakland, so the case changes from day to day.

Cakes are where planning pays off. The Mocha Chocolate Layer Cake is a three-layer, six-inch chocolate cake with vegan whipped espresso frosting and a crown of dark chocolate-covered espresso beans; it serves six to eight and costs $50 for Oakland pickup, with room for up to four words of writing. Chocolate cupcakes have a minimum preorder of four. The SF bakeshop is not part of online pickup ordering yet, so cakes and preorders are collected in Oakland.

A few vegan staples are worth carrying home. The rustic baguette, $6.95 for pickup, has a chewy middle and a crust you recrisp in a 400 degree oven, and the soft sandwich bread, $10.75, is also tagged vegan. The Banana Muffin, $5.95 as a single, mixes ripe bananas with semi-sweet chocolate. For bakers at home, Mariposa even sells its own egg replacer for $5.50 alongside a gluten-free flour blend.

Timing is simple. The SF counter opens at 9:30 am Monday through Friday, 9 am on Saturday and 10 am on Sunday, and closes at 4 pm every day. Seasonal chocolate cake donuts, which are tagged vegan, are baked for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and for holiday weekends. Saturday mornings are the busiest time in the Ferry Building because of the farmers market outside, and HappyCow reviewers note that service can take a while when the shop is busy.

Allergies need a careful read of the menu. Some SF cafe items carry a full allergen statement, while others say there is no statement on file yet and tell you to ask at the counter before ordering. The bakery also works with tree nuts, soy, sesame, dairy and eggs. The Viennese Tea Cookies, $13.50, are vegan but made with almonds. If you need nut-free and vegan, the hand pies and chocolate cupcakes are tagged nut-free.

The company story starts with one baker's diet. Founder Patti Furey Crane started baking gluten-free sweets in 2004, while pregnant with her first child, and the business began at night in a shared kitchen in West Berkeley, packing brownies and biscotti for Bay Area stores. In 2006 Mariposa moved into its own bakery in Oakland and opened a tiny first bakeshop. More than twenty years later it runs two Bay Area bakeshops, ships across the country, and says franchising is its next chapter.

Make a morning of the building. Far West Fungi, right next door, sells fresh and dried mushrooms from its own farm, and Recchiuti Chocolates on the other side is a San Francisco chocolatier worth a look for gifts. Outside, the Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market wraps around the building. Across The Embarcadero, Whack Donuts at 4 Embarcadero Center makes baked vegan donuts, a useful second stop if you eat wheat and want something sweeter.

That is where online pickup orders are collected, including the vegan layer cake and cupcake boxes. For same-day delivery in San Francisco, the SF cafe menu links to DoorDash. Mail order covers shelf-stable items such as the baguette, sandwich bread and muffins, packed to travel.

Practical notes: Mariposa Baking Co. is at One Ferry Building, Shop 32, San Francisco, CA 94111. Hours are 9:30 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday, 9 am to 4 pm Saturday and 10 am to 4 pm Sunday. Everything is gluten-free; vegan items are tagged online and described on the cafe menu. It suits celiac vegans, Ferry Building commuters and anyone planning a dairy-free birthday cake through the Oakland preorder counter.