One of the biggest restaurant openings in San Francisco in years. Six stories, four restaurant concepts, one roof. Chef Claude Le Tohic was Joel Robuchon’s right hand man at Jamin in Paris (considered by many to be the best restaurant to have ever existed) and later exec chef at Joel Robuchon Las Vegas, where he earned three Michelin Stars and a James Beard Award. Many other talented chefs onboard too, including pastry chef Yannick Dumonceau, formerly pastry chef of L’Ambroisie in Paris and Quince. The patisserie opens tomorrow (soft opening party was today), with cafe, bar, and fine dining restaurants soon to follow. Anyone with any insights…there is surprisingly little information about the place online. I plan to visit the patisserie this week.
It’s a project from the Alexander Steakhouse group, though it sounds more ambitious than any of their efforts to date.
Visited the patsserie today and added in pics–this is one of the best bakeries in SF! They have high quality croissants/koigun amanns/baguettes/etc standard bakeries have if that’s your thing BUT they also have cakes (small and large), macarons (more than 20 flavors), chocolate (more than 20 varieties), and ice creams, with a large selection of coffees and drinks. This beats out anything like it in terms of both variety and quality IMO. Pricing is $4-6 for croissants/pastries, $8-10 for small cakes/entremets, $2 for macarons and chocolates per piece, $40 for larger cakes. I wonder if they are going to be able to sustain such a large variety of pastries, cakes, ice creams, macarons, and chocolates. All in total they probably have around 100 different items.
Also good to see the chefs there. I believe Claude and Yannick were there greeting guests.
Excited to see the fine dining restaurant O shape out. The only concern I have is the price–the chef’s table is $5000 for 8 ppl, so per person it is BY FAR the most expensive meal in town. For a brand new restaurant, even from a chef who has gotten 3 michelin stars in the past, that’s ambitious.
Where’d you get the pricing on the chef’s table? That’s before drinks?
Tried a plain croissant (top notch, rivals any in the city), some macarons (good), and a couple small cakes, an ispahan one and a matcha mille-feuille (these were really good, I don’t think you can get anything like this anywhere else in SF). Tried one piece of chocolate too, was good.
If any of your have been to Alexander’s Patesserie it’s not significantly different. A lot of the staff came over from there. Maybe slightly larger variety here. Those are not in SF though.
Individual tarte Tropézienne was very good, though I don’t approve of the addition of powdered sugar.
Exterior of the canelés was perfect, top part of the interior could have been creamier. La Boulangerie makes the best I’ve had around here.
With one latte and tax that was $20.
My foodie hairdresser was raving about the bistro so I’m curious to try it.
They’re not supposed to be creamy. Moist? Yes. But no creamy.
Chacun à son goût. My opinion’s pretty common.
Canelés are textural masterpieces. The burnished crust—lacquered with butter and, traditionally, beeswax—crackles like the outer crumb of a fresh baguette, the torched sugar coating on crème brulee, or the burnt corner slice of brownie. The creamy insides are the most delicate custard, luxurious like pastry cream but with a fine porosity.
They are crisp on the outside with a light but moist, almost creamy interior