Two days later I found myself at Rustic Bakery. There are two locations – one is in the Marin Country Mart at Larkspur Landing, a nice little cluster of shops and restaurants in Marin, right on the other side of the Richmond Bridge. I freaking love this place. You really can’t go wrong with anything you order here, the pastries are fantastic and seriously rival the very best ones in Paris (I’m not kidding).

Here’s the outside. Larkspur Landing is great and very family-friendly. You can always find plenty of dogs and strollers… lol. Rustic Bakery is tucked inside the mart, on the 24-hour fitness side, straight through past the Starbucks.

Here’s the sign outside. They serve Stumptown Coffee at Rustic Bakery.  Stumptown is a craft coffee from Portland, OR.

Here is the inside of Rustic Bakery. I was surprised it wasn’t more crowded… Actually, right after I took this photo a bunch of people came in right behind me… agh, the pressure!

Some of the yummy offerings… so hard to choose!  I’ve eaten every single pastry at Rustic Bakery at one time or another. Today, however, we will be focusing on their brightest shining star, the ham and cheese croissant.

I also ordered a latte… here’s they are making it.

Oh happy day! Here’s the glorious ham and cheese croissant. Notice the cheese baked into the dough… the golden flakey crust… I can’t even begin to describe how delicious this is. I’ve eaten a lot of ham and cheese croissants in my life and I have to say that this one is by far, the very BEST.  This is the flakiest and butteriest croissant you’ll ever have – the ham is folded neatly inside, it’s real cheesy and crumbs will be everywhere.

I just visited Paris last September and of course I ate croissants everyday, but in the back of my mind I was always thinking of the croissants from Rustic Bakery.  You may be thinking, “WHAT?! Paris is the the world’s croissant kingdom! How dare you!” Well, I’m serious, and if you doubt me, you need to go and try one yourself.

When you order the ham and cheese croissant, you need to decide if you want to eat it room temperature or warmed up.  If you get there early enough you may even get a fresh hot one… this has only happened to me once and it was amazing… If you have a toaster oven nearby, I highly recommend heating it up for a few minutes before you eat it, you won’t be disappointed. Microwaving it is good too, it warms it nicely, but it also kind of loses the flakiness, which is this croissant’s greatest asset.

So beautiful…

And this is funny because my name is Kira… lol.

So are you ready? …Do it!

Rustic Bakery
Larkspur Landing
2017 Larkspur Landing Cir
Larkspur, CA 94939
www.rusticbakery.com

Feed Shark

The post Rustic Bakery: Ham and Cheese Croissant appeared first on Fryhole.

It’s small. No seating inside. You can see that there’s an outside-facing coffee window (for order pickup). There’s a little seating area out front with a couple of picnic tables and benches.

Here’s the inside. We arrived at the perfect time because there was no one in line and no one behind us which allowed me to take these photos, yay! Well, I still was like, whatever, it’s just another hipster coffee shop with pastries and subway tiles, meeeh…

They serve De la Paz coffee.

…I started reading the pastry signs. OMG. WTH kind of place is this?!! This is NO ORDINARY bakery.

Some options included:

• Bostock with almond frangipani (not sure what this is but it sounds good)
• Chocolate Claw
• Pistachio Blackberry Twice-baked Croissant (whaaaaat)
• Ginger Pull-apart
• Butter Croissant
• Coffee Spice Cake
• Hazelnut Brown Butter Cake
• Ham and Cheese Morning bun (almost got this one)
• Everything Croissant
• Mushroom Tart
• Veggie Tart (veg and goat cheese)
• Sauerkraut smoked cheddar peppadew tart

I was emotionally taken by the diversity of these offerings and naturally chose the  more obscure one – the SAUERKRAUT TART. OMFG. Really?! Sauerkraut in a pastry?! This cannot be…

Here’s the beautiful creation on a plate, still inside, just after I paid.  You an see some pepper bits peeking out and cheese baked in the dough, and it’s sprinkled on top with sesame seeds.

Here’s a shot taken from the coffee window while I was waiting for my latte.

Very nice latte foam art!

We got a spot at one of the picnic tables. Here’s the tart again. It is so beautiful and intricately made, I really appreciate the attention to detail. Definitely makes it worth every cent of $3.50.

The first bite was mostly just pastry, didn’t reach the sauerkraut yet. The outside was crispy, flakey and buttery with a hint of cheese and a little tiny essence of the sesame seeds.  The inside was softer than the outside, and I could tell it was going to be great. At this point I couldn’t tell if the sauerkraut was going to be mixed in the dough or the actual filling…

But then it happened (see below). The inside is sauerkraut. It’s definitely tangy sauerkraut, but for some really weird reason it goes perfectly with the outside.

I was very impressed by these fancy pastries and decided to buy an assortment to take to my friend’s baby shower.

Here’s one of everything they got in one box!

The everything croissant looks soooo good…. will have to try that next time.

If you’ve reached the end of this post, congrats! I hope you visit

Neighbor Bakehouse next time you’re in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco, it is unique, freaking awesome, and I can’t wait to go back!

Have you been there? What’s your favorite thing?

Neighbor Bakehouse
2343 3rd Street Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94107
www.neighborsf.com

The post Neighbor Bakehouse: Sauerkraut Smoked Cheddar Peppadew Tart appeared first on Fryhole.