Frequently Asked Questions
What we get asked about the best cheese & charcuterie boards in the Bay Area:
Where do you deliver?
We deliver about 25 miles in all directions from our Oakland kitchen.
- SF proper - $25
- North Bay up to San Rafael - $40
- Upper Peninsula (From SF to Hwy 92) - $35
- Mid-Peninsula (Hwy 92 - Palo Alto) - $50
- East Bay - up to El Cerrito and down to San Leandro; as far east as the hills - $20
If you're not sure whether you fall in this zone, you can enter your zip code on the shopping cart page to double check. Note: this only works if you have something in your cart first!
We are happy to drive farther for custom orders with advanced notice - just use the custom order form to let us know what you’re looking for and where you’re located. An additional charge may be incurred.
Our minimum for delivery is $150 for Oakland/SF and $300 for the North Bay/Peninsula. If you do not meet this minimum, you can pick up from our kitchen in West Oakland.
When do you deliver?
Our standard delivery hours are 12pm-6pm, Tues-Sat (closed Sun/Mon). If you need delivery outside this window, please reach out to hello@ripencompany.com. Please note that a $30 fee may apply. If a day is blocked out on our calendar, we're either closed for the day or sold out.
Do you make vegetarian/vegan boards?
All boards have a vegetarian option that you'll see on the dropdown menu on each product page. Two of our boards (The Botanica and The Californian) are vegan by default. We can also make our cheese & meat board vegan with at least a week's advance notice (send us an email! hello@ripencompany.com).
What can I expect on my gathering board?
What shows up on our boards is entirely dictated by what’s fresh and available from our partner growers and producers. It changes week to week! This is a large part of what makes ours the best charcuterie boards in San Francisco. Each item description gives you an idea of what to expect, but it will always be a bit of a surprise - and we think that’s the best part.
The vast majority of our products are grown or produced within 200 miles of the Bay Area, with a few exceptions (the most notable being cured meats, which are harder to find locally, but which we’ll always source from the USA). Although we love a stinky French cheese as much as any other hedonist, it’s important to us to showcase what’s available from our local farmers and to keep our food miles (the energy used to transport everything on a board) as low as possible.
Will you stay for my event and clean up?
We are a drop-off service and do not provide staffing for standard online orders. We do offer a staffing option for custom events - fill out this form and let us know what you need!
What's the difference between the waste-free and disposable options?
We offer two types of packaging for all of our board types - disposable OR zero-waste (reusable). The contents of the board are the same, but the packaging and sizes are different.
The disposable option uses a sanded & oiled piece of plywood, which will need to be thrown away after use, and is packaged in a cardboard box, which can be recycled.
Our zero-waste packaging uses an aluminum tray and a plastic lid that we will reuse again (and again) with the help of Dispatch Goods, a local company that will pick it up from you when you're done, wash it, and return it to us. It's a little bit of extra work on your part, but not much, and we hope you agree it's worthwhile to reduce our environmental impact.
The two types of packaging have different sizing options, which we've outlined below. Because of this, their pricing is different too. Their prices per person are roughly the same, but the disposable option is a bit more expensive per person because of the cost of the packaging.
I’m not sure what size to order.
The sizing of our waste-free options is different than our disposable options, which can be confusing (sorry!). Here's a primer:
The smallest board (other than individual portions) that we offer is the SMALL waste-free option (feeds up to 8). The LARGE waste-free is exactly twice as big as the small, and the EXTRA LARGE is our biggest board and is twice as big as the large (it feeds up to 32 people!).
The small disposable board is larger than the small zero-waste board.
The medium disposable board is about the same size as the medium zero-waste board.
It may be easier to take a look at the product pages, where we’ve indicated rough estimates of how many people each board feeds. If you're still not sure, consider what time of day your event is and whether your guests will be eating full meals before or after the boards (also whether there will be alcohol - beer loves cheese!).
I have a food allergy and/or I just really hate olives. Can you accommodate for that?
YES! It’s easy for us to accommodate allergies and preferences and we are happy to do so. There's a field in the order form you can use to indicate your preferences. Please note that while our boards are gluten free except for optional crackers, we are NOT operating out of a certified gluten free facility. Same goes for nuts or other allergens - we can remove them upon request, but can't guarantee anything's 100% allergen-free.