Source

At 11 Division Street in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood, Source built its reputation around a brick oven and a conviction that plant-based cooking could satisfy on the same terms as any comfort-food kitchen. The menu covered substantial ground: house-made breads, dosas, salads, sandwiches, brick-oven pizzas, and vegan sausages the restaurant called "bow wows," alongside vegan desserts that included a house take on the Twinkie. Nearly everything was organic, and gluten-free options ran throughout the menu rather than appearing as a token afterthought. The room matched the food's philosophy: bright, minimal, and open, with wooden tables, a visible kitchen anchored by the brick oven, and projected visuals that kept the atmosphere calm rather than clinical. Co-owners Andrew Fox and chef Mitch Fox ran the operation, and the average dinner tab sat around $20 per person before drinks, positioning Source firmly in the accessible end of San Francisco dining rather than the premium-vegetarian tier that has since grown considerably in the city. The restaurant drew enough attention to earn a feature on KQED's Check, Please! Bay Area, the long-running public television program where Bay Area diners review each other's recommendations — a form of editorial recognition that carried weight in the local food conversation. Source closed in 2015, but its approach to international, comfort-driven plant-based cooking, executed at an everyday price point with serious house-made craft, anticipated the direction that vegetarian restaurants across the country would move in the decade that followed.