Bernalites sure eat well there up on the hill. Dawdling along a rolling 8-block strip of commerce, you could go from Avedano's killer Cuban sandwich (and impressive local/sustainable meat selection) to Moki's sushi or Vino Rosso's salume. Or you could nibble Peruvian bolitas de yuca at Piqueo's or momo at Little Nepal, then finish up with ice cream at Maggie Mudd (including non-dairy versions made with soy or coconut milk). There's coffee and bagels at Martha's, eggs and toast at Moonshine, iced tea and wraps on the shady back deck at Progressive Grounds.
All good, but where, where were our Paris-perfect pains au chocolat? Our savory swirls of fluffy bread filled with miso, scallion, and sesame seeds? The Ritual Roasters coffee painstakingly dripped cup by cup? We Hill dwellers may be very busy walking our dogs or itsy-bitsy-spidering our charming offspring, but we have our standards, and our needs. (As well as no patience for schlepping down to the Mission to make our antsy toddlers wait in that endless Tartine line.)
Which makes the arrival of Sandbox Bakery, after months of window-peering, a reason for rejoicing up here. Chowhound buzz promised a summer opening; permit processes being what they are, the bakery opened on Cortland on December 7. Charcoal-walled without, white-tiled within, the bakery is sleek, almost a little stark for now, with no seating. But all the better to focus on the pastries, arranged in a glass-fronted case facing the whooshing automatic doors.
