Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://specialtyfoodmagazine.epubxp.com/i/235863
store tour Bites by the Bay This year's bounty of openings in the Bay Area is a locavore's delight, featuring intriguing new stores and bakeries that celebrate locally sourced ingredients. BY LAIKO BAHRS B. PATISSERIE California meets France at a modern patisserie. The b in b. Patisserie stands for Belinda Leong, the accomplished pastry chef (Restaurant Gary Danko, Manresa) who opened this sleek French patisserie in tony Pacific Heights with fellow baker Michel Suas last February. The shop has become a chic hangout for cappuccinos and almond croissants in the mornings, and open-faced tartine sandwiches, tea and vanilla millefeuilles in the afternoon. Like the best French patisseries, customers will find the perfect treat—lemon passion-fruit madeleine, raspberry rose macarons—to indulge. The shop's signature pastry is the kouign amann (pronounced "kween amahn"), a specialty of the French province of Brittany. The crunchy pastries, served plain or filled with seasonal local fruit, are so popular that customers even snap up bags of the extra-flaky, golden-brown trimmings. PHOTOS: COURTESY OF INDIVIDUAL RETAILERS/PRODUCERS/COMPANIES CHOCOLATIER BLUE Stylish yet approachable chocolates. Loved the Chocolatier Blue chocolates you discovered in Berkeley, Denver, Lincoln or Omaha? Now you can find owner Chris Blue's signature sky-blue striped chocolate boxes in San Francisco, where he opened his latest store in Union Square in September. Using striking geometric shapes patterned with vivid colors, Blue offers chocolates in whimsical flavors like peanut butter with strawberry, sugar cookie and root beer float for the kid in all of us, along with chocolate caramel turtles, handmade marshmallows and hot chocolate kits. Prefer something a little more sophisticated? Look for chocolates with fillings like grapefruit with rosemary, passion fruit caramel or White Russian, made with Flying Goat From top: Kougin amann from b. Patisserie, cowboy steak from Belcampo Meat Co. and cinnamon buns from Rustic Bakery