Bi-Rite's planned fourth San Francisco store took its first concrete civic step Aug. 21, filing three ABC license applications for 6001 California St. — a combination that maps to its grocery-plus-prepared-foods model.

Bi-Rite's long-rumored Outer Richmond store now has its first paper trail with the state. On Friday, Aug. 21, an entity called BR California LLC filed three license applications with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for 6001 California St., at the corner of 22nd Avenue — the clearest sign yet that the city's most closely watched grocery expansion is moving from a signed lease toward an actual open.

The filing is worth reading closely, because the combination tells you what the room will be. Bi-Rite applied for a type 21 off-sale general license (external source, opens in a new tab) — beer, wine, and spirits sold to-go, the backbone of a grocery — alongside a type 41 on-sale beer-and-wine eating-place license for a prepared-foods counter meant to be eaten on site, and a type 86 instructional tasting license, which lets an off-sale retailer pour samples in the aisle. Grocery, café, and in-store tastings, filed in one stack. The applicant name follows the company's own pattern: its 2024 Polk Street store is registered to Br Polk LLC.

The address is a neighborhood landmark that went dark. The space last operated as 6001 California Market, which closed about two years ago (external source, opens in a new tab); older residents still know the storefront by the red-and-white Appel & Dietrich neon that dates to the 1950s. Bi-Rite signed a lease on the building (external source, opens in a new tab) in March, taking 3,481 square feet of retail space per the leasing materials — roughly the footprint of its Divisadero store, and smaller than the 4,000-square-foot Polk Street location that opened in 2024. It shares the block with Pearl 6101 and Pizzetta 211.

This would be Bi-Rite's fourth grocery store and its first on the west side, part of founding partner Sam Mogannam's stated plan to add two to three more Bay Area markets before 2030. The company has not set a firm opening date, and an ABC application is a filing, not an approval — the licenses still have to clear the protest period. But the paperwork is real now, and it says the Richmond store is being built as a full Bi-Rite, wine aisle and all.