Book Tour Diaries No.1

Bakeries in Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco

I am exhausted! 3 stops of the book tour down, and it’s been incredible; events have all been sold out, and the people have been so unbelievably kind and welcoming. It’s been a wonderful week so far. I am just incredibly tired and jet lagged, but the kindness and enthusiasm of everyone coming to my events is getting me through—well,  that and lots of caffeine.

Now that I have been through Minneapolis, Seattle, and San Francisco, I thought I would share a few of the places I managed to try out during my short stop in each city. For Seattle and San Francisco, I spent barely 20 hours in each city, so I had to be picky and choose just one or two places to try out. I was in Minneapolis for 2 1/2 days, which you’d think was plenty of time, but sadly no, after a packed schedule of events, it turned out all the bakeries I wanted to visit were closed Mondays and Tuesdays, so in the end the one bakery I visited was partly selected through the elimination of choice!

Minneapolis

Not a common stop on the book tour circuit, I was thrilled to be hosted by the wonderful team at Nordicware, who have been a part of the city for close to 100 years. We held a raft of events from a couple book talks, one hosted by the brilliant

zoe

; we did a book signing, and we also filmed some stuff for their social media and did the local TV show; it was a full-throttle start to the tour.

Because the bakeries I had bookmarked were sadly closed (Laune Bread and Black Walnut Bakery, both of which I have previously visited and are both excellent), I went in search of recommendations, and no place came more highly praised than Dianes Place in the north-east of the city, right alongside the Mississippi River. Founded by Diane Moua, a Hmong-American, the restaurant is inspired by her East Asian heritage. Chef Diane is also a renowned pastry chef, having twice been nominated as a James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef. Due to her background, the restaurant is rightly known as a destination for excellent pastries. I tried the breakfast croissant, which was a twist of a classic sausage egg and cheese, which was absolutely wonderful. I also tried the coconut pandan croissant, which was stellar; filled with a fragrant and delicious coconut and pandan cream. The restaurant is currently only open for breakfast and lunch, so its a brilliant place to start your day.

Seattle

When I asked for recommendations for Seattle, I was inundated with more recommendations than I could possibly take advantage of, with a small handful of places coming up time and time again. Temple Pastries and Deep Sea Sugar + Sea Salt both ranked incredibly highly, but with such limited time and a venue out of the centre of town, I didn't have time to venture to either of those on this trip. Instead, I chose another highly recommended spot, Saint Bread, that was a little closer to my book tour venue, and I am so glad I was restricted by time and location because this place was perfection. The bakery is nestled on the water, and it feels like a shipbuilding yard just one day upped and left and was replaced by an incredible bakery. The venue is quaint and charming and oddly relaxing; the view of the ships and the water, plus the beautiful weather, put me in such a relaxing mood. The bakery has an international feel, with flavours and inspirations coming from many corners of the globe. Beyond the sweets and the pastries, the bakery also has a very enticing food menu. They are particularly well known for their burger, and so obviously I had to try it. A very simple smash burger; it was everything I wanted in that moment, plus the homemade Hawaiian roll it was served on? Perfection. But the main reason this place grabbed my attention was a cookie. Which seemed appropriate for a cookie-book tour. The cookie in question was a snickerdoodle, a delicious but not always exciting cookie. The bakery took that cookie, added some Korean Gochujang and rolled the cookie in sesame. I was a tad sceptical, but I was incredibly pleased to be proved wrong. This cookie was absolutely incredible, the balance of sweet and spicy, the hint of cinnamon, the nuttiness of the sesame. A dream cookie.

As I was in and out of the city with barely time to blink, I had to leave for my flight to San Francisco before the city, and especially the Ballard neighbourhood I was staying in, properly woke up. Right by my hotel is a brilliant spot called Rachels Bagels and Burritos. I had visited on a previous trip and had fallen in love with their absolutely stellar bagels and I needed to experience them again and had my fingers crossed they were still as good as I remembered. The team were SO kind and saw that I was leaving early and opened their doors for me, well before their normal operating hours. They sent me off with a bag full of bagels and a large coffee. I am very happy to say their bagels still rank as one of my all-time favourites, their ‘everything’ is especially top-tier.

San Francisco

After another inhumanly early start, I landed in San Francisco and hit the ground running. I had bakeries to check out! I am very lucky that I have visited the city multiple times in the past, and so I was particularly looking for places that were new to me. That desire brought me to the door of Loquat. The bakery might look familiar to the eagle-eyed pastry fiends because it is housed in the space that was previously home to the brilliant 20th Century Cafe. The bakery takes influence for its menu from the Jewish diaspora, so you can expect pastries like salted chocolate babka, rugelach, boureka, and so much more. On this particular visit, my attention was grabbed by the stunning chocolate espresso cake. A perfectly dense and fudgy chocolate cake was sandwiched together with chocolate ganache and then frosted with the silkiest of espresso buttercreams. It was a fabulous slice of cake, rich and decadent with a world of flavour.

At my event, held at the brilliant Omnivore Books, two bakers very kindly whipped up some treats for the  audience, okay and me. Eric of @astrandabakery made a delicious chocolate sheet cake and Jessica of @jessicalittlefu made a batch of wonderful choux buns.

As I was leaving the city, I had to stop by one of my favourites, Jane the Bakery, which just so happened to be very close to my hotel. As always, I am bowled over by the sheer range of products on offer and the uniformly high quality they manage to achieve. We shared an espresso swirl and their sausage and provolone croissant, which I am rather obsessed with.

I also managed a quick pit stop (thanks to jet lag) to my favourite coffee shop in the city, Sightglass Coffee. The coffee is, of course, excellent, but I am also obsessed with the design of the space; it's just gorgeous.

NYC Pop-Up

As I post this, I have just left DC and am headed to the final stop on the tour, NYC. A very quick reminder that my final book tour event is coming up tomorrow. If you’re in NYC, I will be at Supermoon Bakehouse on Tuesday, October 8th, from 6-8pm. The bakery will be making cookies from the book, and I'll be signing copies for you. Copies of the book are limited, so if you’re planning on coming along, you can pre-order a copy with the bakery to guarantee your copy. If you can't make the event but still want a signed copy, you can also order from the bakery to pick up at a later date!