Maison Nico, San Francisco’s quintessentially Parisian bakery, has quietly opened a second location — directly across the street, in one of San Francisco’s most famous buildings.
Owners Andrea and Nico Delaroque took over a pocket-sized café in the lobby of the Transamerica Pyramid last month, serving Maison Nico’s popular pastries including croissants, buttery madeleines and custardy caneles. For drinks, there’s a lineup of espresso drinks made with beans from San Francisco roaster Linea Caffe. The compact counter, which has lounge seating and faces the corner of Jackson and Montgomery streets, replaced Pyramid Café, which had opened in 2024 after a $200 million renovation of the skyscraper.
The arrival of Maison Nico, which Chronicle critics have named one of the Bay Area’s top bakeries, is the latest change in the food offerings at the Transamerica Pyramid. After the 48-story tower was sold to a new owner this spring, Cyprus-based investment firm Yoda Plc., Miami restaurateur Brad Kilgore closed his three businesses there:, the casual Café Sebastian, flashy Italian-Japanese restaurant Ama and shaved ice shop MadLab. Replacements for them have not been announced.
Delaroque said that Ioannis Papalekas, a Greek billionaire and majority owner of Yoda Plc., is a Maison Nico customer and offered the Delaroques the chance to take over the lobby coffee counter in April. “We decided to go ahead because it was a really light lift for us since we’re so close,” Delaroque said. Bakers can easily carry pastries from the flagship to the new location…