Category: Cafes, Bakeries, Ice Cream… (Page 6 of 6)

San Leandro, like the rest of the country, is undergoing a heat wave. Unused as we are to high temperatures, our homes are not prepared to take them. In our particular case, our house has no insulation to speak of, and heats up like an oven in summer. It’s hot.
So thanks god for Zocalo, the cafe on Bancroft. Zocalo is already my favorite place to hang out – not just because I can drink an iced mocha while the kids play in their corner, but because I always run into someone I know and often I like too. But in this wave heat, their strong air conditioning is the real draw. I guess one of the advantages of remodeling is putting new equipment, and the A/C works remarkadely well for such a large space.
so if you’re hot and thirsty in San Leandro, head to Zocalo for some cool.

March 2011 Marita’s has closed, its Richmond branch is open at the Hilltop Mall

I’ve written about Marita’s Sweet Potato Pie Co. before, and I’m not sure I have much more to say about it, except that we stopped by the other day for a small Red Velvet Cake loaf ($10) to take as dessert to Desiree’s house, and it was very well received. The cake itself, once again, wasn’t anything special. Indeed, I don’t think it’s a chocolate cake died red, but a plain cake died red, but the cream cheese topping was wonderful.
In addition Marita now has a website, http://www.maritasbakery.com/, where you can check out their offerings. Their website is only half-developed, though, and they clearly based it on standard format. This makes for some funny reading, for example in their mission statement you can read how they’ll strive to give you financing for your purchase and how the owner, John Doe, is a member of a number of Metropolis organizations.
And they do deliver, though they have a $25 minimun order and they charge a $10 delivery fee for all orders under $100. So far they only deliver throughout the East Bay, though they hope to expand (so all of you in San Francisco who are hungering for Red Velvet Cake, may get it soon).
Anyway, it’s a locally own (AFAIK) and small business, and I like that it’s there.

Cafe Sorriso opened about a month ago in the old Lateda location, in front of the downtown Safeway in San Leandro. Lateda was much loved in this community, but it had to close after the owners increased the rent to impossible levels. I’m not sure how the economics will work for Cafe Sorriso – the sad fact is that cafes in San Leandro (save, I imagine, for Starbucks) are not big money makers.
The new Cafe Sorriso looks wonderful. On the outside, it’s benefited from a coat of orange paint that makes it look sunny and friendly. I’m partial to that particular yellow-orange color, so I may be biased here. Inside it looks brand new. The “kitchen”/food preparation area has shrank a bit in size and is now composed of brand new impecable stainless steel surfaces – while a new counter has appeared making an L-shape with the old one, where they feature the day’s pastries and take your order. Back there there is a wall with miniature tea pots and small mugs – I thought they were just for decoration, but apparently that’s what you get if you order tea. I didn’t pay attention to their tea offerings this time, but I certainly will in the future (which reminds me – I have to make reservations for our April and May monthly teas!).
The rest of the restaurant features new paint, a lot of dark wood lintels, a new fake-fireplace (but still nice) and new, stylish furniture. There are a couple of fake-leather (or cheap leather, didn’t look closely) couches with a fake-marble coffee table, and otherwise crowded tables and chairs. But everything looks very nice and comfy. Cafe Sorriso’s space is quite small, so there isn’t an area for children – but they do have a couple of toys and story books in a shelf, as well as a lot of newspapers. The sofa area is large enough that a couple of patient kids can hang out for a little while – but still close enough to the rest of the scene that it took my 4 yo no time at all to make friends with another little girl sitting nearby. Still, I’m not sure of how child friendly this space will be if we have to sit at one of the tables. I’ll report on that later.
The menu features teas and coffees – but alas, I didn’t take the time to look at those. Instead I concentrated in the half-dozen or so ‘smoothie’ offerings (including a mango lassi) and the 3 or 4 shakes (all $3.50, I think). I’m convinced that if independent coffee-makers want to stand up to Starbucks they really need to spruce up their cold drink offerings (does anyone really go to Starbucks for coffee? It’s the frapuccinos that keep them coming!). I didn’t see any Frapuccino-style drinks here (though truth be told, I was feeling hurried by the server) but the smoothies sounded yummy. I settled in a “strawberry vanilla surprise” while Kathy went for a vanilla shake. I don’t know what the “surprise” on my smoothie was, perhaps that it wasn’t really a smoothie – more like a shake with a heavy ice cream base. I saw frozen strawberries and strawberry torrani added, but I don’t know what else. The result was quite good, it reminded me of the shakes at Vo’s, though it wasn’t quite as yummy. Still, some kids at a nearby table who were also savoring it seemed to like it very much and I certainly would order it again. The vanilla shake started good, but it didn’t hold up. It probably had too much ice, for at the end it was thin and tasteless. If you order it you may want to ask for “easy on the ice”.
We were hungry but none of the limited soup or sandwich options sounded appealing (of the latter they have a turkey, a veggie and a ham and cheese, I think, for about $5) so we instead went with a couple of pastries ($2 each). These were dry and not very tasty – unexcusable given that the cafe is just a few feet away from Safeway where they could easily get better quality baked goods.
In all, I’m quite pleased with Cafe Sorriso and I will go again. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to offer WI-FI.
Cafe Sorriso
1501 Washington Ave
San Leandro CA
(510)351-3605
M-Sa 6 am – 7 pm
Su 6 am – 5 pm

Note: Marita’s is now closed
For years, we’ve driven or even parked by Marita’s Sweet Potato Pie Co. as we visited our friends Regina and Boris, who live in the neighborhood, or stopped by for a drink at Zocalo. I’ve always been curious to check it out, but the concept of “sweet potato pie” just does not appeal to Mike. In the last few weeks, however, I’ve started walking by Marita’s once a week and have had my opportunity to give it a try, and another, and another 🙂
Marita’s is a bakery but one that sells basically two things, cakes (mostly by the slice) and pies. The cakes are simple affairs, consisting of plain cake and frosting. The slices are displayed in two large display cabinets, one of which is filled by slices of Red Velvet Cake alone. The latter is their pride and joy. I liked it, the cake itself didn’t taste like much but the creme cheese filling was delicious. Indeed, this seems to be the case with most of their cakes, the cakes themselves are not special but the fillings are just plain yummy. So far I’ve had the Red Velvet, the coconut, the butter cream and the yellow chocolate – I enjoyed the latter most of all. Still, I’m planning to taste them all in my weekly visits. The slices – priced at $2-2.75 each are quite generous, you shouldn’t have a problem sharing one.
The full cakes ($13-18) are quite large, and they only seem to have a few on display so you may want to call ahead if that’s what you are looking for. In addition to cakes, they serve sweet potato pie, peach cobbler, bread pudding and pecan pie.
The bakery doesn’t have a place to sit, it’s strictly a take-out operation
Marita’s Sweet Potato Pie Co.
600 Dutton Avenue
San Leandro
510-562-3844

2013 Update

Over the years, East 14th Bakery or “The Chinese Bakery”, as we call it, has become a frequent destination. It was recently sold to a new family who is introducing a few new items.

My items of choice here are the pork buns and the other buns.  They are very bready, but quite good and not much more expensive than when the place opened.

Original review

A Chinese bakery has finally opened a few blocks away from my house and I’ve been going almost daily. Yes, this is a habit that has to stop, but it’s so easy to pick up a pork bun or a curry beef bun for lunch on my way home. They offer a large variety of buns with all sorts of fillings, they are huge and under $1. Of the ones I’ve tried so far the curry beef one is my favorite, the ground beef filling is somewhat spicy but very tasty. I love BBQ pork buns but these ones are not the best, their pork seems chopped rather than sliced and they are not very sweet outside. Still, the owner is very eager to please so hopefully he’ll take my suggestions.

Of the sweets, the mini coconut cupcakes are my favorite. They are very coconutish and not too sweet. Their cakes taste mostly like out-of-a-box cakes, not really my favorite but Mika likes them.
In all, I’m very pleased they’re around.
Note that if you pick up a take-out menu they come with a coupon for a free 1st birthday cake – though expires on 9/30.
East 14th Bakery
1780 E. 14th (@ Elsie)
San Leandro, CA
510-351-7318
Everyday 7am – 6 pm

The San Leandro Public Library is one of the those gems that make living in this city worthwhile. It’s a pretty big library for a town this size, and despite horrendous budget cuts which, among other things, eliminated the monthly “Family Fun nights”, it still offers a wide variety of books and other media in an inviting atmosphere. Moreover, it’s the only library I know that features a used bookstore, a gift shop and a cafe.
The Bookmark Cafe is small, though rarely crowded. It offers both indoor and outdoor seating, though the outdoor tables are not shaded so we usually chose to sit inside. They sell a wide assortment of food items, though most of them are the pre-wrapped kind. They do have a coffee machine and a variety of coffee products, but as I’m not much of a coffee drinker I’ve never tried any. I have tried their smoothies, which suck (they seem to be made with syrup rather than actual fruit). They serve lunch items, though it appears they are mostly frozen/microwaved ones. A BBQ rib sandwich could only be described as edible.
So we usually stick to sodas, milk and its Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. The latter are great, the chocolate chips melt in your mouth as you eat them. Mika is a huge fan of them.
We go to the cafe practically every day. Mika has become quite addicted to the experience, and while I feel somewhat uncomfortable about giving in to her daily, I love hanging out there as well. And I know it’s a nice memory I’m creating for the future 🙂

One of the (few) treats of going to LA to visit my parents is stopping by Edie’s for some of their amazing French-style pastries. The pastries are beautiful and delicious, combining richness with lightness and winning flavors. They average about $3 each and the larger ones are big enough to share (if you’re not too hungry). We usually split them four ways so we can all taste a little of each one. We always get them to go, but they are sold off a little European-style cafe that would be a nice place to stop by for a coffee if it was in a nicer neighborhood.
Pastries By Edie
21608 Sherman Way
Canoga Park, CA 91303
(818) 716-7033

Update October 2013

This site is now Four Seasons Cafe and Deli

Update December 2010.
Planet Coffee has been sold twice since our 2004 update, the last time a couple of months ago. I haven’t checked it out since but I’ll try to stop by sometime.
Update December 2004. We went back to Planet Coffee for Vietnamese Sandwiches a few weeks ago and this time we were not impressed by their Vietnamese Sandwiches. There was so little meat vis a vis the bread and veggies. The bread was also over-toasted. In all, I don’t think we’ll try it again.

Planet Coffee is a cafe in downtown San Leandro. Though we’ve lived in the city for 4 1/2 years, today was the first time we went in.
As a college student I *loved* cafes and used to hang out in them all the time. Mike, however, dislikes them so we’ve pretty much avoided them after we got married. It doesn’t help that most cafes around here close early – Planet Coffee is closed by 5 PM so it’s not as if we could go there and hang out in the evenings.
I became interested in trying it, however, when I saw and ad in the local paper that mentioned that it was under new management and that it was now serving Vietnamese sandwiches for lunch. I had heard that Vietnamese sandwiches were delicious and cheap, and I certainly wanted to try them.
The opportunity finally came today when Mike was over for lunch and there were no leftovers to share. We decided to stop by Planet Coffee after picking Mika up from school and we had a very nice lunch.
The cafe is actually larger than I’d imagined given its narrow facade. It’s nicely appointed, with a mural of a European open-air cafe by a lake and nice, bright paintings of Vietnamese scenes. At 1-1:30 PM there was nobody there but us and a couple of people who came to get pick-up. In other words, we could eat lunch without Mika bothering anyone.
As you would expect, Planet Coffee has a typical cafe menu with a wide variety of coffees (they also sell coffee beans by the pound) as well as hot and cold drinks (smoothies, frappes and fresh juices). They serve breakfast (mostly eggs & bread concoctions) and a wide variety of salads and sandwiches for lunch. In addition to the Vietnamese sandwiches they have traditional American sandwiches (all around $5).
But we were there for the Vietnamese sandwiches and that’s what we got. They have six different ones with different combinations of ham, head cheese, pork salame, grilled pork, grilled chicken and BBQ pork. They cost $2.75 for a small and $4.95 for a large, which includes a small side of potato salad. The sandwiches come with pate, pickled carrot & daikon, pepper, cucumber and cilantro. Mike decided on the large grilled pork and I had the small grilled chicken. They were both very good. We liked the contrast of textures and tastes between the meats and the crunchy veggies and the tastes all came together very nicely. We both liked the sweet grilled pork better than the chicken, and we both felt that the sandwiches needed morer meat. They were too bready as they were. Still, we very much enjoyed them. We felt that the small sandwich was a better value than the large sandwich, as there wasn’t such a big difference in size between them.
In all, we’ll likely go back to Planet Coffee for more Vietnamese sandwiches.
Planet Coffee
1423 East 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-351-5527
M-F 6am-5pm, Sa 6am-4pm

Tango Gelato is, as far as we know, the only creamery serving Argentine ice cream in the Bay Area (and possibly in California). If you’ve never had Argentine ice cream you are in for a treat. It’s surprisingly light and dense at the same time (it’s lower in fat than American ice cream but has no air mixed in), and extremely creamy. The dulce de leche ice cream is almost as good as what you can get in Argentina.
If you love sorbet, then you are in for a treat! Argentine sorbets, made with real fruit, are extremely flavorful.
On the minus side, it seems that Tango Gelato has started to cater to American tastes with some definitely American flavors (like green tea). And going to Tango Gelato requires a trip over the bridge (and looking for parking!), as Tango Gelato moved from its previous location in Fruitvale to San Francisco. It’s currently located at 2015 Fillmore Street, between Pine and California streets.
http://tangogelato.homestead.com/