Forget those microwaved pastries that have been turning up at my local Seattle Starbucks. When we went to San Francisco, I was so curious about a bakery that would make our Emerald City’s coffee giant a green-eyed monster.
La Boulange in San Francisco is absolutely adorable. It’s the type of cafe I really wish we had in Seattle. Yummy Pastries. Great hot kids’ meals like noodles and chicken that are also reasonably priced. A casual atmosphere but not in a sweatpants way. This place is put together and cool. Our favorite La Boulange, yes we visited more than one, was in Hayes Valley. It’s the sweetest little neighborhood, but we were there so early nothing was really open. I really wanted to check out Miette’s little candy shop and a macaron shop that looked like it had good tea too.
We climbed a cool playground while drinking Ritual Coffee and promised ourselves the next time we came we’d eat at Stacks and stop in for ice cream at Smitten.
And if there ever is good karma in the world, while we were climbing on the playground and wistfully looking at all the closed stores a sweet cousin phoned us with news of an engagement and a move to San Francisco, so I know a visit back is definitely in our future!
Honestly, I wish Starbucks had brought the whole thing to Seattle and not just some of the food. Yes, the new food selection is huge and amazing (pre-microwave), but after visiting the little sweet La Boulange in San Francisco, I just wish we had one of those here instead. And it might be a little fun to have some diversity in our coffee shop world too.
I even have a little neighborhood picked out for it and a perfect customer that would probably visit every day.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)