Farm & Flour will utilize locally sourced, organic ingredients

For the past three years, States Coffee & Mercantile has been a popular destination in downtown Martinez. The locally sourced coffee remains a big hit in its community, which is why Brett Benzer, who helped open States, is bringing the coffee to Benicia for his new business. However, the familiar States Coffee is just one item on the menu.

On Friday, Farm & Flour will open its doors at 700 First St., offering patrons an opportunity to enjoy coffee as well as sandwiches, salads, baked goods, toast and more, all made from locally sourced ingredients.

Benzer said the idea was to take the concept of States Coffee and expand on it.

“We wanted to do another concept and focus on food and the other passion that we have, and that’s bread and local and sustainable food,” he said. “That’s when Farm & Flour was born, and I dug deeper into what that experience would look like.”

Benzer said the main goals were sustainability and seasonality, namely working with local farms to provide organic goods.

Farm & Flour’s interior design has a very homey feel, with brown wood panel floors adjacent to white wood panel walls. The exterior has a black and white motif, which Benzer said was intentional. The look, he said, was meant to pay homage to 700 First St.’s longtime tenant, Hoffman Drug Store, which later became O’Grady’s Drug Store. The space has been home to a number of other successful businesses over the years, including Country Florist & Collectibles and Studio 41, which closed in January following the retirement of owner Leah Shelhorn.

“I think it chose us,” Benzer said of the space. “We had our hearts set on doing something in downtown Benicia, and we were walking the streets. As soon as we walked into the space, it was meant to be.”

Benzer said staff received a lot of encouragement from Shelhorn.

“She believed in us and wanted us to be the next generation in the building,” he said.

Benzer said one of his favorite moments during the construction process was finding a flier underneath the building that was advertising the 1989 Peddler’s Fair.

“It was such a great token of history,” he said.

Because of that, Benzer said the initial plan was to open on the day of this year’s Peddler’s Fair, but it will actually be opening the day before to give staff a day to prepare for the annual event.

“From the day we saw the flier, we knew that was the day we were meant to open,” he said.

Benzer said the menu includes six sandwiches which are all seasonally inspired with ingredients coming from Bay Area farms. The initial menu features two chicken sandwiches made from free-range chickens in Petaluma, a prosciutto ham sandwich from Berkeley and three vegetable-focused sandwiches. All sandwiches are served on house-baked sourdough. There will also be four seasonal salads with dressings made in-house, baked goods made fresh in the morning and a toast menu, which features everything from avocado toast to summer squash to seasonal jam. The toast and coffee menu will be served all day from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the lunch menu consisting of salads and sandwiches will start at 11 a.m.

Benzer said the ingredients come from farms throughout the Bay Area, ranging from Brentwood to Point Reyes to Healdsburg.

“Everything is within arm’s reach,” he said. “People that we’re inspired by, their practices and sustainability, we’re working with them to revolve our menu around what they’re producing and what’s in season.”

Benzer said the two words that sum up Farm & Flour’s approach are “wholesome and neighborly.”

“Wholesome being our approach to food and quality, and neighborly being the space and our relationships with our neighbors and the community and being inviting and transparent,” he said. “Those are the two things we root everything off of. We’re really proud of what we’re doing, and we hope that comes through in everything that we’ve done.”

Farm & Flour will open for business at 7 a.m. Friday, Aug. 10 at 700 First St. For more information, go to farmandflour.com.