Any favorites out there? I tried the French cafe on Solano but their pastry cream was a little lumpy. I was thinking that La Farine’s would be solid but haven’t tried it yet.
Indie Cakes & Pastries has great seasonal tarts. Not too sweet and she lets the fruit shine through. I only know her from the Kensington farmers’ market, but I think she takes special orders and has a place for pick-up. Masses also makes good tarts, but they don’t always have one out so you’d have to call ahead.
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Masse’s in Berkeley: 1469 Shattuck Ave
Fournee Bakery in Berkeley: 2912 Domingo Ave
La Farine is better for bread than desserts, although their fresh raspberry eclair is pretty good. But the flour and butter used is not as good as Fournee’s.
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Check out La Parisienne on Grand Ave. in Oakland – opened this year. I haven’t sampled much, but what I have had was swoon worthy. Photo attached.
Frog Hollow’s pastries at Berkeley farmers markets of course have great fruit.
For restaurants: I always love Kronnerburger’s danishes – the artisan making them is from Tartine.
I ended up getting a berry tart from La Parisienne. Most of the other places others suggested either did not answer their phone, or did not have the bandwidth to make anything to order given only 24 hours notice. It was buttery and low in sugar, similar in flavor profile to a good strawberry rhubarb pie. This style of tart had cooked fruit and no pastry cream. Since ripe fresh fruit suitable for tarts isn’t really available this time of year, we were better off with cooked fruit rather than fresh. Everything else in the shop looked good, but i was in a rush and didn’t have time to peruse and make other purchases. Their dessert case (top left in the above picture) looked amazing.
