San Francisco: A Tale of Two Bakeries

2010 January 14

by Jon Smith

In my recent quick jaunt to San Francisco I was able to enjoy one of my favorite past times in that fair city: getting fat eating baked goods. For all the myriad offerings of that culinary Mecca baking is one thing San Francisco does rather well. Surely the ubiquitous sourdough bread and variations therein come to mind when thinking about San Francisco but it is the sweeter side of their baked offerings that I crave before my plane is even fully landed at SFO. In particular there are two places I enjoy and in terms of style, presentation and appearance they couldn’t be more divergent. But I love them both.

Citizen Cake

A neon sign and small awning are all that lets you know there's something there.

The first place I hit was Citizen Cake, the Hayes Valley outpost owned and operated by Elizabeth Faulkner. As of late she’s been getting some national pub, most notably her appearance on Top Chef Masters. Citizen Cake has been around for about 12 years and was really one of the first anchors of the Hayes Valley neighborhood’s dining scene. With a very subtle, modern appearance to the street, the place has a well appointed dining room serving lunch and dinner but what always interests me is the bakery. with a style and a modern presentation to match its surroundings, the offerings of Citizen Cake are equally as progressive and cutting edge. What’s important here is that Faulkner never lets her offerings stray far from the classic ingredients that comprises them. For sure her bakery case starts a Pavlovian lip-smacking on first sight but what you realize quickly is that there is an understanding and respect of the basic tenets of baking and confection. Everything she does is well textured with deep, rich flavors and is spot on. She excites and expands the genre of baked sweets while still staying grounded in classic preparation.

I wouldn't be upset if you buried me in the cupcake case to the left, not upset one bit.

Fortunate for me Citizen Cake is located a block away from Jardinière, the destination of my wine tasting, and so even after a pretty tough 5 mile run that morning I decided to make the 20 or so block walk from my hotel to Citizen Cake to make sure I had no remorse about treating myself when I hit them up for a breakfast before my tasting. I’m surely no Ansel Adams, hell I’m no Robert Peyton for that matter, and the photograph I took of my Almond Croissant did nothing to show the light, flaky buttery texture and the intense balanced almond paste inside. Instead I’ll just link you to better pictures of Almond Croissants, but I digress.

Cupcakes, mini cakes and other delectable goodies

Surely not ready to quit just then I grabbed a few of their confections including a Mocha Mi Su, a cocoa genoise cake with mocha mousse and crème fraiche mousse topped with chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream. I watched the gains of my run that morning melt away with each amazing bite. Look, you only go around once I told myself. Grabbing a few chocolate and fleur de sel caramels I was braced and ready to take on the day.

Eastern Bakery

The classic Chinatown exterior of Eastern Bakery

One day I’ll dig deeper into the history of Chinese baking. I don’t know how, why and when they began baking sweet goods, but if indeed the offerings at Eastern Bakery are true to what Chinese baking is all about then I need to accelerate that chore because this place is amazing. Let it be said that everything about San Francisco’s Chinatown scares the shit out of me. Not so much in the “Big Trouble in Little China” sense, more so because I’m usually in Chinatown by myself and navigating the steep climbs of Nob Hill can be a difficult as figuring out where to go – and who speaks English. I always want to so “get it right” but my radar for what looks good, for what looks real is of no use in Chinatown – its all foreign to me. Having been turned on to Eastern Bakery by a friend years back it has thus far proven to be as solid a bakery as you’ll encounter and a good chance for me to set aside my Eurocentric ways. Well, not fully put away – I am still a weeping wimp when it comes to some of their more exotic offerings. Still though, I was a man on a mission and as always gravitate to the moon cakes.

The savory items were daunting but exciting, either way I wasn't up for an experiment - I was on a Moon Cake Mission.

At that point in the day I was still pretty full from Zuni Cafe and this visit to Eastern was done more out of principle as it was out of hunger. Nevertheless I grabbed my old faithful, the Rose Black Bean Moon Cake. Filled with a black bean paste and a hint of rose, what the cake lacks in size it more than makes up for in density and richness. In the past I’ve had the Coffee Crunch Cake which is amazing, but comes with a blood sugar monitor and a side of Insulin. I wasn’t up for it that night, though. Like I said, I know zilch about the tradition and history of Chinese baking, but if this is what old school traditional Chinese baking is all about then sign me up, this place is amazing.