Maison Nico, ranked among the Bay Area’s best bakeries and French restaurants, will launch its first expansion outside of the city this year.
The cafe, well known for its standout French-style pastries, from flaky butter croissants and a signature pistachio Paris-Brest — a halved choux pastry with a layer of pistachio mousse and praline, topped with pistachio crumbles — to elaborate dishes encasing meat in pastry dough, such as beef Wellingtons and duck pithivier, will open its second location in downtown San Anselmo. Andrea Delaroque, co-owner and spouse of chef Nico Delaroque, confirmed the forthcoming location, and said that they hope to open this summer. Online news outlet 7×7 first reported the news.
“We’re so excited because we’ve outgrown our space for some years,” Andrea Delaroque said. “We’ve been outfitting the space as we grew, but the space was never intended to have baking, viennoiserie and paté-making in one place.”
Delaroque said that the larger space will allow Maison Nico to fulfill more orders. There are also plans to start making ice cream, which she said Nico had been thinking about for a decade. New baked goods will include baguettes and naturally leavened loaves for sandwiches. (Maison Nico currently makes brioche for its sandwiches.) “We’ll have things like jambon beurre and other things you can just pick up, (like) walking down the street in Paris,” Delaroque said…