On Saturday mornings the line starts to form at least 15 minutes before The French Spot opens. Happy families eagerly peer into the windows. They watch the bakers carry trays of pastries and bread from the oven to the front counter. There’s speculative talk about ordering the guava cream cheese danish and ube croissants. If Walnut Creek and Concord had the reputation for being “bakery deserts,” Vincent Attali and his wife Maria Zapata have quashed it with a sought-after oasis.
Attali and Zapata started The French Spot as a pop-up out of the pandemic before opening their first brick and mortar in San Francisco’s TenderNob neighborhood. But the couple live in the Martinez-Pleasant Hill area. They were looking to cut back on the commute and, Attali told me, “We wanted to invest in a local space so that we can contribute to the food scene here.” He added, “There are very few actual bakeries once you pass [through] the Caldecott Tunnel.”
It took four years of savings working out of the SF bakery before they were able to launch the second one in Concord. “That was almost a two-year project, from finding the right space and then getting all the people to help us put it together,” Attali said. “Building out a bakery is an expensive endeavor. My wife and I don’t have investors or partners—it’s just us.”
On a recent visit to the new shop, I was delighted to find out that great quiche crust isn’t an afterthought at The French Spot. Attali’s egg fillings are light and custardy, but the recipe he uses for the crusts makes them crisp and tasty. “We make large batches of pie shells in-house,” he said. “We use them for all our savory quiches and for our sweet pies.” I enthusiastically agreed with him when he noted, “It is a very nice flaky pie dough.”…