Local Mission Market Yaron Milgrom Jake Des Voignes | Tasting Table San Francisco

Yaron Milgrom and Jake Des Voignes, who also own Local Mission Eatery and Local's Corner, have opened an unconventional grocery.

"People ask us where all the shelves are," Milgrom says of the three-week-old Local Mission Market. "I tell them that we don't have 18 types of strawberry jam."

Not only are they stocking the produce, meat and cheese cases with locally grown supplies, their staff turns these raw ingredients into ketchups, pickles, stocks, cultured dairy products and charcuterie.

But the grocery store isn't just for people on a 100-mile diet. It's a market for cooks–no matter what your definition of "cooking" may be.

You can buy the building blocks for from-scratch feasts or simply pick up a warm container of chicken and dumplings at the deli counter.

The market's sweet spot, though, is designed for those of us who start somewhere in the middle. Milgrom suggests grabbing a couple of sides from the deli to serve with a pork chop or fish filet you cook yourself.

We one-upped him, buying sofrito ($6 for a pint), that long-sautéed building block of stews, to use in making a cauliflower-olive sauce for the market's house-made rigatoni ($8 for 10 ounces), which we finished with a dollop of crème fraîche ($2.50 for 4 ounces).

It was a 20-minute meal we almost cooked ourselves.