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KQED food

Pennies, Meet Pride! 5 Establishments Where Your Check Supports LGBTQ+ Communities

Celebrate Pride month with food and drink specials that are fun, pretty and will support LGBTQ+ communities in some way.
Grace Cheung
The Magic Melt from the Melt is a mixtue of muenster, cheddar, and fontina cheese. (Patrick Wong)

More on Pride Around KQED

It's that time of year again: Pride month! Chefs and restaurant owners all over the Bay are celebrating the month through food and drink, so this is an update to last year's list to help you find the perfect bite or cocktail (while also supporting the local community in some way in the process). As you'd expect, rainbows make a strong showing among the available items, but there are a few spots doing some other specials with cultural or historical meanings.

Traveling soon and want to support queer establishments no matter where you are? Jarry Mag recently released "a community-driven directory of queer food & drink establishments" called Eat Queer! Best of all, it's free and always open for submissions.

Humphry Slocombe

2790a Harrison St
San Francisco

The Whos Your Daddy Sundae, made with beer ice cream, house-made frosted peanuts and bourbon caramel sauce.
The Who's Your Daddy Sundae, made with beer ice cream, house-made frosted peanuts and bourbon caramel sauce. (Patrick Wong)

All month long, ice cream lovers can expect fun flavors to celebrate Pride Month at Humphry Slocombe! Grab a Who’s Your Daddy sundae (made with beer ice cream, house-made frosted peanuts and bourbon caramel sauce), a Make it Gay Sundae (two scoops of Tahitian Vanilla topped with pink fluff and Fruit Loops) or the Harvey Milk and Honey Graham that is available year-round (raw blackberry honey ice cream with house-made graham crackers).

The Juanita MORE! ice cream flavor features blackberry, ginger and whiskey.
The Juanita MORE! ice cream flavor features blackberry, ginger and whiskey. (Cole Church)

You could also get a scoop of either of their two tasty collaborations that launched this year: the Queer Eye Cookies & Graham (olive oil ice cream with chocolate cookies and graham crackers) and the Juanita MORE! (blackberry ice cream with ginger and whiskey, inspired by the iconic SF-based drag queen, Juanita MORE!). You can also get the Queer Eye flavor in a sundae form with the Queer Eye S’mores: one scoop Cookies & Graham topped with hot fudge and torched fluff.

In all five Humphry Slocombe scoop shops, $1 from the sales of the Juanita MORE! flavor will be donated to the GLBT Historical Society. For friends not in the Bay: $5 from the sales of the Humphry Slocombe Pride Pack on Goldbelly nationwide will go to the Los Angeles based STORIES: The AIDS Monument ($3 will go to them from local LA delivery sales of any pint ordered through Caviar).

Bi-Rite

3639 18th St
San Francisco
550 Divisadero St
San Francisco
3692 18th St
San Francisco

If you're going to be out and about during the weekend to watch the parade, drop by Bi-Rite! 5% of sales from both Markets and Bi-Rite Creamery over Pride weekend will be donated to Project Homeless Connect, SF LGBT Center, and the Q Foundation.

Ferry Building

1 The Embarcadero
San Francisco

Beertender Mike Almason with Almanac Beer Co's LOVE Hazy IPA.
Beertender Mike Almason with Almanac Beer Co's LOVE Hazy IPA. (Almanac Beer Co.)

Humphry Slocombe's Ferry Building location will celebrate Pride like its other shops with the Make It Gay sundae, but you can hop around the building to get specials from a variety of shops.

Miette has a variety of rainbow treats available the whole month, Biscuit Bender has created a special English biscuit called the "Gay Cookie" that will actually be available until the end of July for just $1 and Almanac Beer Co. released a special-edition LOVE Hazy IPA for sale at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

15% of sales from the beer go to support the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center.

The Melt

925 Market St
San Francisco

The Melt will donate a dollar per Magic Melt sold during Pride Month to Equality California.
The Melt will donate a dollar per Magic Melt sold during Pride Month to Equality California. (Patrick Wong)

The "Magic Melt", a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with a delectable blend of cheddar, fontina, and muenster cheeses that have been transformed into a very ooey-gooey rainbow, is available again this year. For every Magic Melt sandwich that The Melt sells, $1 will be donated to Equality California, an activism and advocacy group that fights for more LGBTQ rights and visibility.

The Magic Melt will be available all of Pride month.

Bluestem Brasserie

1 Yerba Buena Ln
San Francisco

On Sunday, June 30th from 10am-3pm, Bluestem Brasserie is hosting their annual Pride Parade Brunch and Viewing Party. To celebrate, grab their special rainbow cocktail—all proceeds will go to AIDS Walk SF.

For more Pride specials around the Bay, see what we've gathered below (and let us know if someone near you has created something noteworthy to eat or drink for Pride):

  • One Market: One Market is offering a Pride milkshake called the Harvey Milkshake, and a portion of proceeds will be donated to the Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation (REAF).
  • Kahnfections: Pride-themed macarons are once again available in boozy and non-boozy varieties. The boozy flavors include Strawberry Daiquiri, Bellini, Pina Colada, Midori Sour, Blue Moon Cocktail and Purple Haze. Virgin flavors include strawberry, peach, citrus, pistachio, earl grey, and cassis.
  • Finn Town Tavern: This year, Finn Town Tavern will be hosting Pride Week Events from Tuesday, June 25th-Sunday, 30th featuring celebratory new cocktails. Throughout the week, you can order the “rather naughty ‘Down Low’ cocktail,” the “Over the Rainbow” cocktail and more.
  • Third Culture Bakery: All proceeds of waffle sales this month will be donated to LGBTQ+ nonprofits in the Bay Area. For June, their waffle special is a Triple Strawberry Mochi Waffle topped with house-made Chantilly whipped cream.
  • Cook Shoppe: Their giant Slice of Pride cake is available all month long and they are donating $3 from every slice to the SF LGBT Center.
  • Dynamo Donut + Coffee: Available during Pride weekend, their Very Berry donut is filled with blueberries and strawberries, and it's all topped off with a champagne glaze and rainbow confetti.
  • CHOUX: In honor of Pride month, CHOUX created a colorful rainbow box of French cream puffs—even a Fruity Pebbles puff makes an appearance.

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