The French Spot

The French Spot is a small bakery in San Francisco that opened in 2022 (after some successful popups before that).  Run by a husband and wife team (he's the pastry chef, she's an artist with some pastry background too). 

"French-American-Asian inspired breakfast pastries (traditional and creative croissants), pastries, desserts, custom artistic cakes."

As you'd guess from the business name, they use classic French techniques, although the menu definitely isn't just the classics, as they incorporate many Asian flavors throughout (ube, guava, black sesame, matcha, etc).  I haven't had the opportunity to try their custom cakes, nor to visit their retail store, but I have tried several pastries that they distribute wholesale to my office, as I can't resist trying new baked goods.  For a wholesale bakery, the quality was a notch above many others, and I suspect their products are better at their own storefront.  I'd love to get to try some of their pies too, such as sweet potato or salted caramel apple.  If it matters to you, they have several well marked vegan and/or gluten-free items.

Guava Cream Cheese Danish. $6.

"Cream cheese Danish with guava jam."

This was the first pastry from The French Spot that I tried.  It looked relatively average, but I was still excited.

I’ll start with the positive.  The dollop of guava was delightful (and yes, I had an extra dollop on mine, abandoned by someone else, that I gleefully claimed).  It was fruity, sweet, and had a nice consistency.  ***+.  The cream cheese under it was fine, although easily lost, as there just wasn’t enough of it.  ***.

But then there was the pastry itself.  It was nicely crispy.  But it wasn’t particularly well baked, I suspect not properly proofed, as it had decent lamination, but fairly big air pockets within. The flavor was average, relatively buttery, but not anything notable.  If I had this item in a random hotel breakfast buffet, I’d say it was fine, but for an actual French bakery this was really subpar, particularly at the $6 price point.

2.5/5 overall, sadly.

Guava Cream Cheese Danish (April 2015).

A few months later I gave this another try.

It again was super flaky pastry that somehow just failed to be as tasty as it seemed like it should be.  Again, not bad, but, just not special (besides how crispy it was).  This one did have more cream cheese filling, and that was an improvement, it was nicely creamy, and had a hint of lemon to it.  I again LOVED the guava - so fruity, such great flavor.  4/5 toppings, low 3/5 pastry.

And then I heated the rest of the danish pastry part up at home later that night.  It was so much better!  The buttery nature really came out then.  3.5/5 warmed up.

Morning Bun. $5.25.

"Bun made with our croissant dough, filled with candied lemon and sprinkled with sugar."

Next up, a morning bun.  I was drawn in by the (generous) sugar coating.

The morning bun was better than the danish.  Like the danish, it was nicely crispy, and had decent lamination.  And like the morning bun, the flavor of the dough was fairly average, not really all that buttery or rich.  But it had no big air pockets, and seemed better baked, and I really liked the slight caramelization from the sugar on the outside.  Lots of sugar.  Very good dunked into my coffee.  3/5.

Black Sesame Mochi. $6.25.

"Black sesame mochi covered with black sesame seeds."

This was an interesting item.  The French Spot lists it as a dessert on their menu, but my cafe listed it as a "mochi muffin" and offered it at breakfast.  I'd call it a mochi cake, not a muffin, and I'm still not sure what time of day I think it is best suited for.  Perhaps afternoon tea time?

The texture was definitely bouncy and mochi-like.  Fun to eat, really.  Black sesame flavor was strong.  It was only mildly sweet, fairly savory almost due to the nuttiness.  And thus, it didn't quite satisfy my dessert cravings.  But I did like it.

I'd like to try one warmed up and served with some ice cream perhaps to make it a bit more dessert-like ...

3.5/5 for being interesting and enjoyable.

Ube Coconut Mochi. $6.25.

"Chewy ube coconut mochi cake. Vegan and gluten free!"

Next up, the ube coconut mochi muffin.  This one also happens to be vegan and gluten-free, which I don't think the black sesame one is.  

The texture was much the same, really quite a delightful squishy, bouncy joy.  I loved it both room temperature and heated up.  A+ texture.

The flavor of this one was more muted.  It had a nice sweetness, and very subtle vanilla-esque flavor, but if I hadn't seen the brilliant purple color, I don't think I would have guessed it was ube.  I didn't taste any coconut.  The drizzle on top did have more ube flavor than the mochi muffin itself.  

I really enjoyed this, as the texture was just fantastic and the sweetness was pretty perfect, but, it wasn't as ube nor coconut flavored as I would have hoped.  Still, 4/5 and I'd gladly get it again.

Vegan Blueberry Muffin. $5.25.

"Citrusy (orange & lemon flavors), soft blueberry muffin. Vegan!"

Next up, another vegan item (but not GF), the blueberry muffin.  It looked a little odd, and I originally assumed it might be GF as well, but it wasn't.

And, yes, it was an odd muffin.  I did actually like it, but, I liked it in its strangeness, this is not really what I'd expect from a muffin, vegan or not.

The top was dusted with a bit of powdered sugar, and it had no overhang, no real "muffin top".  The lack of overhang meant no crispy edges that I like, instead, it was all basically the same texture and doneness.  That said, it was very evenly baked.  But the texture was not what I'd expect from a muffin.

Vegan Blueberry Muffin: Inside.

Here you can see the cross-section of the muffin.  There are a few pretty obvious things immediately:

1. As I had said, no muffin top.
2. Very tight crumb structure, quite dense.
3. Uh .... where are the blueberries?

So let's talk about that texture.  It reminded me of a pound cake, or even the inside of a cake pop.  Super dense, super tight crumb.  It wasn't bad, but again, it just isn't what I'd expect from a breakfast muffin.  It was slightly greasy, but tasted fresh, not greasy like packaged muffins.

And finally, it turned out, the only blueberries within were the two I saw on top.  Each half of the muffin had exactly one on top, and zero, literally zero, throughout.  This was more of a plain sweet muffin than a blueberry one after the initial bite.  If you want some fruity flavor, you'll want to add jam or fresh berries (which, I did).  The overall flavor was good but hard to pinpoint - it wasn't plain exactly, but it didn't have a buttermilk tang, nor anything I could quite identify.  It was sweet but not entirely cake sweet.  It was a pleasant, neutral sweet taste basically.

So, lack of blueberries and muffin top, cake-like base, and yet I didn't mind it.  I do think it probably would be better as an afternoon tea cake than a breakfast muffin.  3/5.