ONE65 Patisserie

Lamination, chocolate, and a Union Square counter

The Banana Chocolate Croissant is the benchmark here, flaky layers folded around chocolate and banana, and it sets the tone for a counter built on French technique in a casual format. ONE65 Patisserie & Boutique occupies the street level of a six-storey French culinary complex in San Francisco, between Union Square and the Theater District, and it opened on 16 May 2019, ahead of the Bistro & Grill, Elements Lounge & Bar, and O’ by Claude Le Tohic upstairs. Le Tohic, a James Beard Award winner who was corporate chef at Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas, founded the project with the team behind Alexander’s Steakhouse and Alexander’s Patisserie in Mountain View.

A bright room built around the case

Floor-to-ceiling glass, high ceilings, white marble-patterned counters, white wood panelling, and black tile keep attention on the display cases rather than the décor. D-Scheme Studio designed the room for counter ordering, takeaway, and casual seating, which is why a visit scales from a latte and a croissant to a full savoury lunch. Paninis, salads, tartines, and breads sit alongside the pastry, and the crowd shifts through the day from shoppers and tourists to couples hunting dessert after the theatre. The pastry team keeps the cases turning through the day, so the mid-afternoon selection is different from the morning one. Chocolate work is produced upstairs in a second-floor chocolate room, so the boutique side of the business runs on the same kitchens as the cases downstairs.

Order the croissants, then a cake

After the banana chocolate version, the Almond Croissant is the classic anchor and the pistachio croissant the richer one; the ham and cheese croissant turns the same dough into brunch, and the black currant croissant sets tart fruit against chocolate. For cake, the Lemon Yuzu Cake shows the citrus side of the case, while the imperial cake, built on a praline base under dark chocolate caramel mousse, represents the entremets. Ispahan with raspberry mousse on a cookie base, an individual lemon tart, mango banana passionfruit cake, and bread pudding cake round out the sweet range, with cannelés, sugar-topped chouquettes, macarons, chocolates, and ice cream for smaller appetites. Drink the SF Fog Latte with pastry, or hot chocolate; wine on tap is there for the tartines. For a first visit, two croissants and a slice of cake is the honest way to read the counter, since the lamination and the entremets are two different skills on show.