Parachute Bakery takes flight

I'm writing you on my birthday morning to share one of my gifts that is helping me learn more about one of my favorite new places in the San Francisco Ferry Building: Parachute Bakery. It's been open for a few months, and the lines haven't abated, so it's been hard to try very many things.

I visited Parachute in early September, but once I got to the front of the line, almost everything was sold out. On that visit, three of us tried a beautiful chocolate chip cookie that happens to be gluten-free, black sesame and yuzu cookie, pecan financier, canelé, and a wheat-free cheesecake, along with a banana salted caramel Einspanner, strawberries and cream soda, and a cacao latte, topped with a 72% Valrhona chocolate Parachute logo, which itself is shaped like a croissant.

The bakery sets a limit of four pastries so that more people can try them, but this week, my friend told them she was shopping for a birthday gift, so they let her pick out eight for the box.

They weren't sold out when she went at 10 a.m. on Saturday, so it's getting a little easier to get treats. She selected a shakshuka croissant with local peppers, an Everything Kouign-Amann, the chocolate chip and yuzu chocolate cookies, a cheesecake, morning bun, pain au chocolat, and a vanilla passionfruit cube.

Everything is top tier, but the Everything Kouign Amann is truly an original superstar — stuffed with scallion cream cheese, it's like a crispy, garlicky bagel bomb, and I won't stop thinking about it.

An additional day of service was added to help address the demand, so they're open Tuesdays through Sundays. Chef Hong has also just opened an intriguing restaurant called Arquet in the adjacent space that I hope to visit soon.

See you next weekend!
Tamara