Situated on a narrow lot and two floors, the hit San Francisco bakery Juniper Café does not have the ideal layout for making croissants and other laminated pastries. Bakers first cut and roll the dough in a cramped basement kitchen, then, several times a day, pass trays of the unfinished pastries, like a fire brigade, up a narrow flight of stairs. On the main floor, the proofer and ovens share room with the café, forcing bakers to work among the bustle of customers waiting to order and baristas making coffee drinks.
“This place was not supposed to be a bakery that has this volume of viennoisere,” said partner-baker Amy Chen, referring to the laminated pastries that draw long lines around the corner of Polk and Pine streets, where Juniper is located. “We have very, very limited equipment and a very strange layout.”
Chen and her partners will have a chance to expand with a second location of Juniper Café they plan to open in San Mateo in early 2027. Located at 1 North B. St. in the Brickline, a new mixed-use building, the space will be a bit larger than the San Francisco one and will have an open layout on just one floor. That will give the team more room to bake pastries — including the croissants that beat out 13 other top San Francisco bakeries in a recent Chronicle blind tasting. It will also allow them to add something Chen has long dreamed of doing but doesn’t currently have room for: bread…