www.tartinebakery.com
MP Visit date: January 13, December 21
TB Visit date: few months ago
Dessert anyone?
(Only in moderation of course.)
The closest thing to pie that I’ve had in the last few years is apple cobbler when it’s on restaurant dessert menus. (The best cobbler is at Frascati.) Prior to that, I grew up eating Marie Callender pies for special occasions.
So I was really excited when I heard about Mission Pie, especially with banana cream on the menu. It’s my new go-to dessert without being at a restaurant. The texture is light, fluffy and gooey. The bananas are ripe yet firm, not oxidized brown, and slightly enhanced with sugar but not overly sweet. The crust on the bottom is croissant-thin and flaky, while the crust on the side is thicker, also flaky.
On the other hand, Tartine uses a coating of hardened caramel between their filling and crust. I’m not a caramel fan (unless it's flan) – don’t like the flavor of burnt sugar and water. I have a hard time getting over the caramel so I can’t enjoy the crust. The filling is decent, but I can’t complete the full experience without the crust.
Along the lines of burnt tastes, Tartine’s croissants and cookies are a little over baked for my liking. I like my croissants to have a couple light layers of crust, but Tartine seems to like theirs with lots of crunchy, crusty layers. These layers also make the croissants pretty dark brown in color, which if we eat with our eyes, is already not appealing to me.
Tartine is a fancy show bakery offering a suite of products for out-of-towners. The line is always wrapped around the corner and the inside crowded, just so people can get a glimpse of a bakery that’s produced a cookbook and been in the media.
Mission pie is humble and simple and good and comforting. Their small list of pies are listed daily on the steel support beam by the display case. Here’s a blurb from their website:
“Through creative choices in all aspects of the business, from our energy-efficient kitchen to our delicious Fair Trade/organic tea and coffee to the reclaimed and recycled materials with which the café is constructed, Mission Pie is guided by a commitment to environmental, social and economic justice. We offer a wholesome and supportive atmosphere not only for lovers of great coffee and pie, but for our workers as well, as we collaborate with local youth advocacy organizations to provide a positive work environment to San Francisco youth. As a thriving, progressive, for-profit business, we relish the opportunity to reinvest productively and creatively not just in the quality of our ingredients and equipment, but in the lives of the people and communities around and within us.”
(All pictures below are from Mission Pie.)
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menu written on steel support beam |
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banana cream |
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sweet potato |
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menu written on steel support beam, coffee/tea on blackboard |
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