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Who doesn't love a pastry shop that makes its own sauerkraut in-house?
Mr. Holmes Bakehouse, the Tenderloin bakery that has seize Instagram by the throat, becoming the punching bag for people who mock their fellow San Franciscans' willingness to wait 45 minutes for commonly available foodstuffs, has had a hell of a year. A bizarre burglary and sudden staff departures marred their ascent into the pastry pantheon. Nothing can stop Aaron Caddel, though, and there's a new menu for fall, that includes cookies, doughnuts, cruffins, and danishes. It isn't readily available as a list, however, because not every item can be had all the time. So if you go, you're playing Cruffin Roulette. (Warning: There's a delicious bullet in every chamber.)
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The cruffins alone (which rotate daily, emerging promptly at 9 a.m., two hours after Mr. Holmes wakes up on weekdays and an hour after the doors open on weekends) are worth it. Just look at the week's lineup: Cherry Orange, Chocolate Mint, Lychee Rose Raspberry, Carrot Cake, Caramel Apple Pop, and Chocolate Chip Cookie. This morning, it was Caramel Apple Pop, with filling the color of a Granny Smith oozing out alongside the sap-like caramel. Although certainly beautiful to look at, they're not especially well-proportioned, like muffins whose tops just kept growing until they can't stand upright anymore. (If that sounds like a slam, well, bulldogs aren't well-proportioned either, and everyone still loves them. And like a bulldog on its belly, begging to be rubbed, Mr. Holmes' cruffins are best when they've toppled over under the weight of their own deliciousness.)
As Mr. Holmes put it on Facebook, "Someday, we hope to make a cruffin so large, so glorious, so majestic, that all wars end and all nations feast together."
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What's especially amusing about Mr. Holmes' social media presence is that, on virtually every platform, fully one in four of the pics are user-generated shots of the "I Got Baked in San Francisco" neon sign against the white tile. The savory bites are not to be missed, either. I'd write more about the sauerkraut but one of my colleagues ate that one before I could taste any. Oh well, gotta go back.
Mr. Holmes Bakehouse,
1049 Larkin, 415-829-7700.
