Tartine Bakery

With no sign above its unassuming storefront, Tartine is most easily recognized by the line that snakes out its door and down Guerrero Street. People patiently wait for flaky pains au chocolat (the best outside Paris, in my opinion), decadent banana cream tarts, and hot-pressed sandwiches stuffed with fillings like smoked sheep cheese and quince jam. The bakery’s James Beard Award–winning pastry chefs also turn out loaves of stone hearth–baked bread, available every day after 4:30 p.m. Nurse a coffee and nibble on a croissant at the communal table, or take picnic provisions to nearby Dolores Park.

If you happen to walk by an unmarked corner shop in the Mission where the lines are stretching around the block, then you’ve probably found Tartine Bakery. Opened in 2002 by husband and wife team Chad Robertson and Elizabeth Prueitt, Tartine has become one of the best-known bakeries in the United States, if not worldwide. The James Beard Awards and Zagat ratings are important, but it takes tearing into a fresh country loaf of bread—Robertson’s speciality, while Prueitt focuses on the pastries—to get what all the fuss is about. Head there in the middle of a weekday to avoid the legendary weekend lines, but remember—the bread comes out of the ovens daily at 5 p.m., and anything left at the end of the day is donated. If you’re looking for something sweeter (or the bread’s not ready yet), there are plenty of pastries and other goodies to choose from. Try the morning buns or the banana cream tart. Tartine Bakery is open Mondays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Tartine Bakery was another great surprise to a sunny Saturday afternoon food experience. Fast service, smiling faces and AMAZING FOOD. you can’t leave San Francisco with out checking this place out, the place where sourdough bread was invented -- The Idiazabal & Membrillo was AMAZING

It lives up to the hype. The bread, the pastries, the coffee. Worth the whole visit to the Mission District.

If you ever find yourself in San Francisco, go to Tartine. Don’t let the line out the front door intimidate you. It’s small inside, so the line isn’t really that long. And besides, whilst standing in line, you get the pleasure of drooling over their display case of all of the yummy, yummy treats they have there. While there, get the double pain au chocolat. Do it and I promise it will be a decision you will not regret. The pain au chocolat are a buttery, flakey croissant stuffed with rich, dark Valrhona chocolate, a perfect marriage of bread and chocolate. You can’t lose! And they are well worth the $5 you’ll have to shell over. They’re huge. Oh, and freaking delicious.