Melissa Perello has always loved dessert. A warm slice of Medjool date cake with maple ice cream, known as lumberjack cake, has been on the menu at her restaurant Frances since it opened in 2009. When she followed up with Octavia (opens in new tab) in 2015, she added loosely set possets and rustic galettes. “It’s part of a well-rounded dining experience,” Perello says. “Dessert is one of the parts of dinner that I’m looking forward to the most.”
Now she’s tripling down on sweets with Lorella, a Russian Hill bakery that will serve croissants, sourdough, and more.
Slated to open before the holidays, Lorella is a joint project with pastry chef Melissa Loar. Lorella is a mashup of their last names — not to be confused with Italian restaurant Sorella down the street or Argentinian fusion Morella in the Marina. Loar, who is from Chicago, baked at Swift & Sons (opens in new tab), Somerset (opens in new tab), and Boka (opens in new tab) before joining Octavia in 2021. She has always dreamed of opening her own bakery and has been testing the appetite at her “Saturbake” pop-ups at Octavia. For years, the restaurant’s regulars have knocked on the takeout window begging for bread, but the restaurant could spare only a few loaves a day. When the monthly bake sale launched in spring 2024, the line wound round the block.
“We sold out in like 10 minutes!” Loar says. “Oh my God. I felt so bad.”…