Sweet Joanna's Cafe

Sweet Joanna's is a cafe located close to my home and office.  I've walked by it daily, literally, for years, without giving it at second glance.  Open during the week only, for breakfast (bagels, egg sandos, etc) and lunch (sandwiches), and is always shockingly busy.  But as my office provided me with breakfast and lunch, I never had a reason to visit a cafe during the week.  So I walked on by.

That is, until the year(s) of Covid.  Somehow, Sweet Joanna's made it through, one of few places in the neighborhood that opened back up.  I was glad to finally check it out.

I always ordered online using Allset, or Too Good To Go, and pickup was quite easy.

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One extra thing to note: the staff at Sweet Joanna's are wonderful.  You can tell they know their regulars, and are a real family business.  I see the owner (?) slide free pastries into the bags of regulars often.  It is the sort of place you feel good visiting, and want to succeed.

Sweet Joanna's has, hands down, the best selection of chips I have ever seen.  Seriously, they carry a huge variety of brands, no loyalty to one or another, and within each brand, they have all the classic but also really obscure flavors.  I've never seen such variety in chips, anywhere.  Not even the grocery store.

They also have an impressive bottled drinks lineup, again, just vast selection, so many brands, so many flavors.  Little things like this show how much thought the owner's put into creating a great experience for their customers.  Chances are high they'll have your favorite, even if radically different from your co-workers, and yes, they'll have theirs too.

Sweet Joanna's had outdoor seating on the sidewalk, and did even before Covid days.  Most people tend to grab their items and go, but, for those that stay, there are a decent number of tables outside, and a few inside.

Baked Goods

While Sweet Joanna's mostly is a lunch destination, always crazy busy with nearby workers coming in for a sandwich and bag of chips from their epic selection, the baked goods are not to be missed.  I'm a baked goods lover, and I was highly impressed with the quality.  I was told that Sweet Joanna's bakes all their own pastries in house, daily, which is fairly impressive for such a small cafe, but, um, I am fairly certain that at least most of the items come from California Smart Foods, a wholesale bakery here in San Francisco.

The baked goods lineup ranges from dessert items like cookies and brownies, to breakfast staples like muffins and scones, to very tempting looking donuts, croissants, buns, and more.  They are displayed right at the register, and look amazing.

Pastries

The pastry lineup is what always draws me in.  Several varieties of croissants, danishes, sweet buns, and more.

Morning Bun.  $2.75.

The first time I ordered, I ordered online, and selected a sticky bun.  Alas, when I arrived, they had no sticky buns left.  Only morning buns (among other goodies).

I accepted the morning bun instead, but walked away a bit sad and annoyed.  I was in the mood for a sickeningly sweet sticky bun!  Turns out though, I 'won'.  Maybe their sticky bun is amazing, but this was incredible.  I'm almost glad they didn't have the sticky bun, as it lead to me discovering the morning bun instead.

It was GLORIOUS.  So much more than meets the eye.

Perfectly crispy exterior, flaky, buttery, moist dough inside.  Coated in soooo much sugar and a touch of cinnamon.  And, then ... MARZIPAN!  The entire base was marzipan.  Glory.

I adored this, and would gladly get another.  ****.

Almond Bear Claw.  $2.75.

Next up was an item selected for me, the almond bear claw.

It had a great shine to it, and was covered in slivered almonds.  I couldn't wait to see what was inside.

I'll cut right to the chase though.  This was a highly, highly mediocre pastry.

Sure, it was fresh enough, the pastry was flaky, and it did have plenty of almonds on the exterior, but it really was quite boring, particularly when compared to the morning bun.  I expected a generous almond filling, and it had very little.  There was a smidge of almond paste inside, but barely enough to taste.  The result was a fairly dry pastry, one full of promise, but no delivery.

**+.

Update: It might sound odd, but I froze half of it, and realized I liked it far more frozen.  Like, direct from freezer.  Still not a great pastry, but I liked it more this way. ***.

Apple Turnover. $2.75.

This was another item selected for me, as part of a Too Good To Go bag, but I was fairly excited by it, as I was in a bit of a pie mood.  I wasn't sure what flavor it was, but it turned out to be apple.

The pastry was fairly average, a bit flaky, a bit stale (it was end of day).  I liked the pearl sugar on top, even though there was a comical amount.  Inside was apple filling, a rather mushy, applesauce like style with a few chunks.  Very little seasoning to the apple mix, which at least meant it wasn't aggressively over spiced, but also made it not very interesting.

I didn't hate this, but it certainly was not as good as the one I had the week before from Le Sandwich (made by Dianda's Italian bakery), which I'll review soon.

***, highly average.  Once heated, and stuffed with ice cream, it elevated to a ***+.

Plain Croissant. $2.75.

Another Too Good To Go selection, the massive plain croissant, clearly not a flaky french style.

It was really quite buttery, and had a nice flavor to it, but a flaky, messy, quality French pastry it was not.  Still, I did enjoy it, and I think it would work great as a vehicle for a breakfast sandwich, filled with runny egg and cheese.

***.

Scones

Sweet Joanna's carries two kinds of scones, blueberry or cranberry walnut.

Cranberry Walnut Scone.  $2.75.

My second visit to Sweet Joanna's fared no better.  I again ordered a sticky bun online, but they were out when I arrived.  And they were out of donuts.  Only a few danishes and scones remained.  I told the staff member to pick for me, and he selected this scone, cranberry walnut.

It was ... ok.  I didn't really like it at first, as I don't like cranberry that much.  It was very soft, cake style.  I liked the sugar on top.   The nuts were minimal but I did like the crunch they added.  But, the tart cranberry didn't really do it for me.

**, at first.

But I kept trying, unwilling to throw it out.  I turned it into "scone porridge" 2 days later.  Yes, scone porridge.  A new invention, heh.  I crumbled it up, removed the cranberries, added milk, and warmed it in microwave.  Then I added sprinkles and cinnamon.

It was like mushy thick oatmeal, and the nuts were great.  I certainly wouldn't seek this scone out, but, hey, it worked as porridge ...

***+, in my new form.

Muffins

Sweet Joanna's offers up three kinds of muffins: classic blueberry, healthy bran, and banana walnut.  All have a homemade look to them, and uh, often look slightly burnt.  You know, "homemade"!

Banana Walnut Muffin.  $2.75.

The first muffin I tried was banana walnut.  I loved how it had slices of banana visible on the outside, and they looked gloriously caramelized.

I love a crispy top on my muffins, so even though this looked a bit dark, I was excited by how crispy it looked.

It was a decent banana muffin, very, well, banana forward? You had to be in the mood for banana bread to enjoy it.  Fairly spiced.  Moist, well studded with bits of walnut for texture.  The banana slices were only on the outside, but I liked what they added.

Overall, a fine banana muffin, but again, you had to want a banana muffin, which isn't usually my thing.  It went nicely toasted with cream cheese slathered on.

***.

Banana Walnut Muffin. $2.75.

A month or so later, I got another.  This one was far lighter on top, and had even more slices of banana perched on top.

It was slightly less over baked, but otherwise was pretty much the same.  Good warm with cream cheese, but not something I'd seek out.

***.

Blueberry Muffin. $2.75.

The blueberry muffin was letdown.

The top was crisp, but without a sugar coating or anything, it just felt a bit burnt.  Inside was equally dry, not a moist muffin.  The texture sorta reminded me of what I'd expect from a gluten-free muffin, although it was not.

It was loaded with berries, generous berries all throughout, but, the base muffin just had no flavor.  No tang, no sweetness, just, nothing.  Incredibly boring.  Again, sorta reminded me of what you'd expect from a gluten-free baked good, it tasted a bit ... like cardboard.

Boring, dry, meh.

**.

Cookies

I've long eyed the massive cookies at Sweet Joanna's, but they never make it to the top of my priority list of items to try out.  I mean, really, how do you pick a cookie when there are so many decadent pastries sitting there!  They offer only chocolate chip cookies, available with or without a chocolate dip, and coconut macaroons.

I finally tried one.

Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Chip Cookie.  $2.75.

One day, I actually really was in the mood for a cookie AND was really in the mood for chocolate, so the chocolate dipped cookie sounded perfect.

It was a decent cookie, quite large, crisp, which isn't how I generally prefer my cookies, but made for a good "cookies and milk" cookie, if that makes sense.  The kind to dunk in milk.  It was loaded with little chips, and the chocolate coating really just sealed the deal.  It was precisely what I was looking for.

These are also available in a non-dipped form, if, for some reason, you prefer less chocolate.

***.

Other

I still have never had the main draw of Joanna's, the sandwiches, but one day my Too Good To Go bag contained sandwich filling.  They also have a daily soup, available with or without vegetables, that frequently winds up in Too Good To Go bags.

Egg Salad.

Sweet Joanna's makes their egg salad fresh daily.  

It was a mushy style, with no obvious seasoning nor mix ins, besides the expected egg and mayo.  However, the moment I tasted it, I knew there was at least one other thing in here: mustard.  So much mustard.  The dominant flavor, not egg, but, mustard.  It desperately lacked any other seasoning.

I imagine on a proper sandwich the veggies, bun, etc would balance it out perhaps,  but, as it was, this was just very, very mustard heavy and mushy.

Eh.  **+.