Craftsman & Wolves: A Modern Bakery

You’ve gotta love modern bakeries.  Every now and then a baker goes ultra modern with his or her interior design and it just makes everything look so chic.  Taking the modern interior design approach does not make a bakery, but it can help the company stand out as long as the products match in quality.  My global modern bakery list includes: Princi, Ble, Nadege, Helsinki Bakery, Kara’s Cupcakes, Joseph Brot von Pheinsten, and Vyta.

The newest bakery to join the modern-sugar crew is chef William Werner‘s  Craftsman & Wolves on Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District. After browsing its sizable breakfast menu on the Craftsman & Wolves website, my top pics of items I would like to try include their “damn fine granola,” “smoked almond brittle,” a “cocoa carrot muffin,” and a “raspberry, coconut, earl grey, almond cube cake” (see cube cake below). The bakery also has sandwiches and coffee from local coffee bar and roaster, Sightglass. 

Photo Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

One more point of interest, while we are talking about Craftsman & Wolves.  If “clustering” is a good business strategy, then Craftsman & Wolves did an excellent job by locating itself a block away from one of my other SF all time favourite bakeries, Tartine.

Speaking of which, today I tried baking two Tartine cookie recipes for class tomorrow: shortbread and chocolate walnut cookie from the Tartine cookbook.  Looking forward to taste testing.

Round out tea with coffee: Fourbarrel

Yesterday I posted about an exciting tea expansion that will no doubt hit the tea world by storm.  Today I am shifting gears into coffee.  My fiance is currently in San Francisco attending a cool technology course on how to gamefy processes while I am in Prague slowly loosing my voice from lecturing four days in a row.  I used to sing and perform on stage and apparently I have forgotten the appropriate techniques for preserving your voice but still making yourself heard and projecting in a room without strain.  Mental note, go back and check up on vocal straining.

Back to coffee. One of the questions my fiance and I always toss around prior to travel, regardless if it is for pleasure or business is where will we get our daily fix?  He:coffee, I:tea.  I mean, that is one of the most important things to figure out after  answering”what hotel will I be staying in?” Blue Bottle coffee in San Francisco looks like it is the most talked about coffee business in the city, but I was immediately attracted to a spot called Fourbarrel, a coffee shop opened by Jeremey Tooker in 2008 in the Mission district.  This”vertically integrated” coffee shop is backed by some serious interior design and is for the coffee junkie who appreciates a good bean.  The company sources, roasts and serves coffee in a very modern, industrial setting, and to borrow the words from a review by the website, The Architect’s Library, this cafe “uses architecture to AMP up the conversation.”  There is also a lovely video about Fourbarrel coffee that I posted below, if you want a behind the scene’s look at their business.  Seven Summit Productions (the company who made the video) really did a terrific job with this one.

I am waiting to hear the report from my man on just how large of space Fourbarrel occupies, but from what I can tell, the scale of Fourbarrel looks massive.  It was designed by Boor Bridges Architects and truly imbues a large scale, industrial chic atmosphere with its wooden tables made from salvaged beams and its vintage metal school-or draftsman looking chairs. I’m drooling over the interiors and totally jealous that I am no in SF right now to experience it myself.  Next time/next trip!  Has anyone been to Fourbarrel?

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

acme party box company

I am studying to take my Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) exam in a couple of weeks and this company I found is totally fitting for the material I’m trying to absorb on energy and water waste reduction, using sustainable materials and recycled content. 

For those of you who entertain a lot and can’t stand wasting the decor, gifts, tableware, Acme Party Box Company out of San Francisco offers reusable party accessories and decor items made from sustainable materials so you can rest easy that your party is environmentally friendly.  For example, some of the items Acme sells can be planted in your garden, reused as home decor.  The best part of all this is that you do not need to compromise on style to be environmentally friendly. Acme stuff is so cute and they offer party ideas on their website as well as their blog.

via glitter and pearls

via candepop

via gwyneth paige

via 100 layer cake

the flour pot bakery

I am blogging at 1am which may indicate that my life is slightly insane.   Between working, teaching yoga, studying for night school and renovating, my creative outlet, blogging, has taken a bit of a back seat.  (not happy about this one bit).  I have another week or two before things at the condo wrap up for good and I get my weekends back to explore the blogsphere and share my inspirations.  What’s worse, I didn’t even get to blog about my favourite holiday, Thanksgiving and blog about my birthday this past week. 

Just to let you know that I haven’t completely disappeared off the map, here is a sweet piece of branding that I saw posted on the blog, frolic that was in turn posted on Truly Smitten.

I saw it in my half sleepy state and was giddy with excitement over the lettering and menu for the flour pot bakery designed by Sara Nicely (from San Francisco).  

via frolic

via sara nicely

Colour Palettes Made Easy: Rosenow Floral Design

I came across a florist based out of San Francisco called, Rosenow Floral Design and I was drawn to how the owner effectively presented the endless colour options for floral arrangements.  The site offers viewers an artist-like colour palette for all to see and then provides corresponding floral categories for guests to browse.  The simplicity of her site makes it both enjoyable and easy to navigate  and the intricacy and texture in her arrangements were pleasing and attractive.   

Colour Palette (via Rosenow Floral Design)

Rosenow Floral Design (via Happy Hour Bride)

Rosenow Floral (via BoredIncDesign)

The ultimate tea party- Crown and Crumpet (SF)

Tea is my water.  I drink gallons of loose leaf tea and would call myself somewhat of a fanatic.  Perhaps it was the five years I spent travelling back and forth between Toronto and China that did it! I was engrossed by tea culture from a young age and now make it a part of my daily life and travel.  Actually, make a point of looking up local tea houses or places that offer afternoon tea when I travel to sample local interpretations of the delightful afternoon pass time. 

What I am enraptured by the most is the creativity that hosts inject into designing afternoon tea menus, tea party table design etc…  It is a wonderful way to relax, enjoy some bite sized treats and share good conversation with your guests. 

One great place (of many) to experience afternoon tea is at Crown and Crumpet in San Francisco.  They have done an excellent job designing their store to reflect the nuances of tea culture.  This brightly coloured space will be sure to ignite the senses.

Crown and Crumpet Store SF (from Crown and Crumpet)

Afternoon Tea Service (from crown and crumpet)

Inside the salon (from Crown and Crumpet)

Other honourable mentions in SF go to :

Samovar Tea Lounge

Lovejoy’s Tea Room

Honourable mention in LA:

Royal-T

Royal T in LA (from Royal-T)