30
Sep
Tartine Bakery & Cafe is located at the corner of Guerrero and 18th Street in San Francisco. We may have found this place on our own, but we knew about it because Anna’s agent, Kitty, worked with the folks from Tartine on their book deal a while back. So we’ve had a copy in Anna’s apartment for months. We’ve drooled over it, made exclamations, and insisted that if we had a chance, we’d visit and eat at the famed, James Beard-award-winning bakery.
And that’s what we did! And as with most things that interest white people in San Francisco, there was a high level of both hipsterism and artistry in the food and the venue. I’ve posted photos of the art installation in the cafe: it’s a mix of large ink drawings on paper and what looked like ink-and-water-painted text on the walls. It has a very animalistic-horror-comic-book vibe going on, or, as Anna put it, “It looks like the kind of thing a kid in junior high would doodle in his notebook, but reinterpreted by someone who went to art school.” I think it’s hipster-highbrow-meets-Napoleon Dynamite. (You know how hipsters are all into deer heads and taxidermy and all that stuff? This feels like part of that, except with a little fantastical regression mixed in.)
But what about the food? Oh, well, I didn’t take many photos of the food until we’d plowed through it. We waited until about 12:30 to go and eat, so not only was there a line, but we were so starved we didn’t know what to order. So we went with Anna’s roommate Ben’s recommendation of the bread pudding. I wanted chocolate, but not too much chocolate, so I asked for a chocolate croissant. And we picked a ham and cheese croissant as well. And a coconut macaroon for dessert. And coffee.
The bread pudding was everything you’d want it to be: soft and chewy, sweet, creamy, and topped with huckleberries and peach slices. Comfort food at its best. The croissants were huge, which made them very American, but the chocolate was gooey and the ham and cheese savory and satisfying. The coffee was pretty typical (kind of a surprise for San Francisco), but it hit the spot. Anna was in heaven here, and insisted that the pastries were some of the best she’s had, which is saying a lot, as sweets are her thing (and she’s spent time eating pastries in Paris).
It was the kind of morning/afternoon where you sit, relax, people watch, and scheme the rest of your day. It was a beautiful, sunny hour and we came up with the idea of going to the SFMOMA to see the Richard Avedon retrospective. Which we did. Photos are on their way!
