This hidden SF bakery sells $1 baguettes

Something amazing is happening beneath Mission and 4th streets in San Francisco. While the rest of us rush by en route to Starbucks or Trader Joe’s, the city’s future bakers — maybe the next Elisabeth Prueitt or Armando Lacayo — are in a subterranean kitchen, making impossibly delicious pastries in the name of education.

Once a week, the students of the baking and pastry program at City College of San Francisco load those picture-perfect chocolate croissants, golden baguettes and about two dozen other baked goods onto racks and ride the elevator up to the longtime vacant Educated Palate space, where they set up a bakeshop and sell these treats to the public for as little as a $1. By this food editor’s estimations, it’s the best deal in San Francisco right now. But it’s only one day a week, Thursday, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

The downtown campus of CCSF is easy to miss; it’s a bit run-down and doesn’t scream bakery. But follow the signs to “come in for freshly-baked goodies,” and you’ll see about a half-dozen chefs clad in crisp whites behind a pastry case that looks more like the lineup at Tartine than a school bake sale. Feather-light palmiers are fanned out like tiny harps alongside apple turnovers, elegant almond croissants, goat cheese-mushroom Danishes and towering loaves of walnut-studded banana bread. Most of the items cost $2 or $3 each. The top seller — those baguettes, still warm from the oven — fetches $1 each. 

With no labor costs, pastry instructor Elizabeth “Betsy” Riehle only needs to cover the cost of ingredients, she told SFGATE. That’s how they’re able to keep prices so low.

“This is 100% student-made,” said Riehle, an industry veteran of 40 years. “I want to emphasize that. It’s all them. I love my job because I get to work with these students, and I still get to bake.”

Riehle also gets to resurrect a beloved space that has been vacant for three years. The Educated Palate was once a white tablecloth restaurant run by the students in the food technology and dining services certificate program. That program stopped shortly before the pandemic. And you probably know what happened after — Riehle started teaching baking on Zoom. Last semester, when the culinary arts department returned to full-time, in-person hours, Riehle uncovered the tables and chairs and slowly set up shop, making use of everything, down to the leftover Plexiglass for the pastry case. She’s hoping pedestrians walking by will notice.   

“I love this neighborhood. I want to fight for it,” Riehle said. “This corner is … I don’t want to say teetering, but there have been a lot of closures. One of the Starbucks across the street is going to close. But there is also a new restaurant by the alley, and I think we are also a bright spot. There’s a glimmer here and a glimmer there, and I think if you put them all together, we can really bring this corner back to life.”

Downstairs, an hour before the shop opened, Riehle was dashing between six stations, guiding students as they filled turnovers and pulled pillowy focaccia from the oven. On any given Thursday, the menu features up to 28 items, everything from hazelnut financiers and peanut butter cookies to slices of cheesecake. Like all City College courses, this two-semester program is free to residents of San Francisco, and graduates have gone on to work at the city’s most iconic spots, including Tartine, B. Patisserie, Jane the Bakery and Devil’s Teeth Baking Company. 

But not every student is career-bound. Phillip Enis recently retired from a long career in public policy with the state of California. He’s taking the class to hone his bread skills and immerse himself in the rigors of a commercial kitchen. “I love to bake and wanted to learn the science,” he said, keeping an eye on his gelatin-infused buttercream. “I don’t have all this incredible equipment at home. And it’s good to see your tax dollars at work.”

Jinwah Lau is on a break from her tech job. After years in software and product management, she felt burned out and in need of a reset. “I needed to regain energy and rethink my life,” said Lau, who posts her personal creations on Instagram. “Baking has always been a passion of mine, but here, I’m learning about techniques and baker’s percentages. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet, but I will always have these skills.” 

And then there’s Yesenia Russo. A San Francisco native who left banking to follow her dream career, she’s been baking for 11 years and used to go to Liguria’s in North Beach for what she long considered the best focaccia in the city. But now, the version she makes with her class — with caramelized onions, parmesan, bell peppers and olives — has taken that title. 

“I love it when people take a bite in front of you and they say, ‘Oh my God, this is so good. You guys made this? And you’re students?’ They give a lot of compliments. You see all your hard work paying off.” 

The Educated Palate Bakeshop, 88 Fourth St., San Francisco. Open 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursdays only.