Loquat

Babka takes three days

Loquat's babka is the reason to come. It took most of a year to get right and three days to make, and it arrives as poppy seed or laminated depending on the morning. Bourekas hold the savory side, and the sweets run to pistachio cream puffs and a preserved lemon tart with rosemary cream, which is where the case stops resembling anyone else's. The specialty is Jewish diaspora pastry, so laminated dough, filled pastry and dessert do most of the storytelling here, and bread is the quieter part of the program.

Sourcing is split deliberately between pantry traditions and Northern California farms. Some ingredients, feta among them, come from Greece, while ricotta comes from Double 8 Dairy in Petaluma and eggplant from Full Belly Farm in Capay Valley. That combination is the whole argument of the place in miniature.

Jewish diaspora pastry in Hayes Valley

Tal Mor opened Loquat in October 2022 in the former 20th Century Café space, and built it around Jewish diaspora foodways rather than a narrower Israeli-bakery frame. Mor was born in Israel and has food memories from years there, but has called Israel only a small piece of the Jewish story. The name comes from his Cupertino childhood, when his father picked loquats that would otherwise have gone to waste.

He wanted a bakery that smelled divine and felt like home, and the room works that way: a pastry case, baking smells, and a counter that doubles as a neighborhood gathering place. Mor is a Four Barrel Coffee and the Mill partner with a background in cafés, coffee sourcing and roasting; Jodi Geren is his business partner; and Tartine pastry chef Kristina Costa helped build the pastry program. Eater has placed Loquat among San Francisco's best bakeries, and the San Francisco Chronicle singled out the laminated babka and pistachio cream puffs.

Order babka, add a boureka

Start with babka, whichever version is out, because it carries the most craft and the longest history in this kitchen. Add a boureka for the savory side, especially given the Greek feta, the Petaluma ricotta and the Capay Valley eggplant behind it.

Then move to the sweets that drew the wider attention. Pistachio cream puffs are the recurring one, while the preserved lemon tart with rosemary cream brings sharp citrus and herbaceous dairy instead of another round of chocolate and cinnamon. Two pastries is the right size for a first visit, and the case rewards a second.