tartine bakery

i've heard a lot about tartine bakery. everyone in sf who knows of it seemingly has nothing but raves for it. i've wanted to try it for some time now, but never could "stumble" across it. little did i know it sits quite close to dolores park, a park i frequent enough to regret not having come across tartine earlier.

it occupies the corner store at guerrero and 18th in the busy, parking-gods-hate-you mission district. it's pretty non-descript and i never realized it was the famous bakery, instead mistaking it for a laundrymat whilst whizzing by looking for a damn parking spot.

this past sunday danna and i headed to tartine after a relaxing afternoon of sun and red balloons in the park for a little snack. we both had a savory gougere filled with gruyere cheese and fresh herbs and shared a delicate lemon cream tart.

a gougere is basically a cream puff. this version happened to have cheese and herbs baked into it. it was pretty good. light and fluffy all around.

but where tartine shined for me was in the lemon cream tart. the lemon cream was perfectly light in consistency and very lemony without being overly tart. the crust was also perfectly baked, no undercooked spots and a buttery flavor. the unsweetened whipped cream cut the sweet and tartness perfectly too. ok fine, it was perfect. mmm...

now i understand why there's consistently a line out the door for this place. although they could vastly improve their processes to serve people faster. there's a total hold up at the register. oh well.

what do you think of tartine? and what should i try next time i head in there?