Better Butters in the Bay

Published on Friday, July 8, 2011, by Colleen Hubbard / Edit Post

A recent thread queried hounds on where to find Plugrá, a slow-churned European-style butter that has a higher butterfat content and less water than typical American butters, resulting in better flavor and texture for baked goods. Trader Joe's stopped carrying the one-pound butter brick that proves a much better value than the half-pound size more commonly found in stores. Oasis Food Market in Oakland carries the one-pound size, and Whole Foods on Fourth Street in San Francisco sells the one-pounder.

For locally made butters, suggestions included McClelland's and Straus. Your editor puts in a vote for Vella's lightly salted butter, which is sold at Bi-Rite and was also recommended in this thread from 2005.

Oasis Food Market [East Bay]
3045 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland
510-655-5111

Whole Foods Market [SOMA]
399 Fourth Street, San Francisco
415-618-0066

Bi-Rite Market [Mission District]
3639 18th Street, San Francisco
415-241-9760

Discuss: Where can I purchase Plugra butter in the SF area? Trader Joe's has discontinued it.
The better butter? Vella's Bear Flag Brand?

ALLSan Francisco Bay Area Digest
POST A COMMENT |5 Comments

COMMENT

  • Wow, you're late to the party with this story. The Plugra topic was started in June 2009, when TJ's stopped selling the one-pound brick for cheap. Oasis dropped Plugra over a year ago. The most expensive and delicious local artisanal butters are not a reasonable substitute.

  • Berkeley Bowl (near I80) has AMAZING grass fed butter by a company called Fond O' Food. It's "GERMAN BUTTER" and usually over with the cheese aisle (not the dairy aisle for some reason...) This stuff is gold!

    Also, Natural by Nature makes grass fed butter that's whipped or regular. I get the whipped and it's soo soo tasty. They have it at Whole Foods in Los Altos but so far, haven't found it...+READ

    Berkeley Bowl (near I80) has AMAZING grass fed butter by a company called Fond O' Food. It's "GERMAN BUTTER" and usually over with the cheese aisle (not the dairy aisle for some reason...) This stuff is gold!

    Also, Natural by Nature makes grass fed butter that's whipped or regular. I get the whipped and it's soo soo tasty. They have it at Whole Foods in Los Altos but so far, haven't found it anywhere else.-COLLAPSE

  • @pointybird, unless you've been to Oasis Market more recently and verified that it does carry Plugra butter, the most recent info posted about this says it's not longer available.

  • Mea culpa, mistakes were made.

  • Editors: the pricing information quoted is from 2009 and not accurate today!!! What's the information value in that?