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.

When I finally opened my eyes, we were in Rita’s! OMG, dreams do come true! A Rita’s in California (Castro Valley, to be exact)! I couldn’t believe it, I think I cried.

I remember when the first Rita’s came to the Lehigh Valley, PA a looong time ago. It’s always been one of my favorite reasons to go home to visit during the summer, since it’s only open during the summer months.

If you don’t know Rita’s it’s an Italian ice place that serves italian ice, frozen custard and blended ice/custard drinks. It is so good! My favorite thing to order is a lemon and chocolate gelati – which is frozen custard layered with italian ice.

This is exactly what I saw when I opened my eyes…

Yay Rita’s in Castro Valley!

Here’s the freezer…

Vanilla custard cone with rainbow sprinkles.

And here’s mine! It’s a Florida orange and chocolate gelati.  I usually get lemon and chocolate, but they didn’t have lemon (which kind of blew my mind, ugh!). The orange was really good but I still like lemon best…

If you’ve never had custard before, it’s a little lighter and denser than traditional ice cream. It’s sooooo good!

I’m so happy that Rita’s is only 20 minutes away, it’s really weird to have it out west because it’s my east coast nostalgia but it’s so awesome and I’m so happy!

The post Rita’s Italian Ice: Florida Orange and Chocolate Gelati appeared first on Fryhole.

Here’s the outside… very cute, retro.

When you walk in, this bar area is straight and to the back. You’ll see it against the back wall.

It was after lunchtime when we arrived so the place was empty. We sat down at the bar in the back and had the place to ourselves.

Like any good shake purist, we decided to try the Orange-Sicle and a I got a good ol’ root beer float.

The orange-sicle is “Fresh orange juice, tangerine and vanilla extracts, cream, turbinado syrup, citric acid, soda”. Everything is made by hand, step by step, the old-fashioned way. The girl making our drinks was wearing a white paper hat. There were small bottles of liquids that were used in some of the drinks, just a drop or two. Never saw anything like this before.

Ahhhh the Orange-Sicle. Light and frothy, creamy and citrus-y.  Very good.  I know it’s probably extremely offensive to compare this creation to an Orange Julius, but I can’t help myself… it was really good, and had that lightness like an orange julius (sorry).

Here she is toasting the marshmallow that goes on my root beer float. Cool!

Overall, the root beer float was really good, and the toasted marshmallow really was an extra special touch! The only thing I would change is make it slightly more carbonated. I’m weird when it comes to flat-esque sodas. But it was great and I would love to go back and have another one!

I must admit, I grew up in Pennsylvania drinking Stewart’s Root Beer and also sometimes Boylan’s and A-Treat… we used to go to Stewart’s Drive-In in New Jersey.  Root beer, birch beer and sarsaparilla are a big deal in PA.. kind of spoiled in the root beer department.

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