Cookies, bourekas and other baked goods from San Francisco bakery Loquat, which is expanding to the Inner Richmond.
Justin Katigbak / Speical to The Chronicle
Loquat is known for its laminated babka and other sweets inspired by the Jewish diaspora.
Justin Katigbak/Speical to The Chronicle
On the last Tuesday of every month, people line up at Loquat in San Francisco for fluffy laffa bread, baked to order in a tandoor oven and wrapped around fried eggplant, zhug and pickles. They would line up more often, probably, but the bakery lacks the capacity to make the popular sandwiches more than once a month. Similarly, there is only enough oven space to make challah once a week, on Fridays, and kubaneh — the buttery Yemeni pull-apart bread — on weekends.
Next year, that will change: The hit Jewish diaspora bakery is opening a second location in the Inner Richmond neighborhood, at 4555 California St., owners Tal Mor and Jodi Geren said. Loquat’s sequel will allow for more bread and savory items than ever before, from toasted slices of challah toast slathered with house-made labne to bialys and Jewish Persian, Moroccan and Iraqi breads. Customers will be able to grab fresh loaves along with to-go dips, such as matboucha, a spicy Moroccan tomato sauce, or labne with za’atar.
Since opening on Gough Street in 2022, Loquat became known largely for its sweet items: laminated babka, pistachio cream puffs and decadent layer cakes and pies made by James Beard-nominated pastry chef Kristina Costa. But Mor, whose Iraqi-Jewish family moved from Israel to the Bay Area when he was 5 years old, sees bread as a vessel for historical and cultural connection. He’s been “thinking about how Jews have lived everywhere in the world and have been influenced by all the places that they inhabited and built,” he said. “It’s enriched Jewish culture. Bread is such a big part of that.”
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Loquat’s current home lacks the space and equipment to expand much further. So about a year and a half ago, the owners started searching for a second location on San Francisco’s avenues. Then, coincidentally, the owner of Beanstalk Cafe, a neighborhood coffee shop in the Inner Richmond, reached out to see if they wanted to buy their equipment and lease. The corner building at California and 8th streets with two olive trees outside was exactly right for the next Loquat, Mor and Geren said. They signed a 20-year lease.
Saba Parsa makes a lamb kotlet at one of the bakery’s Loquat at Night popups in 2025.
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
The new Loquat will revolve around a new deck oven — whose convection heat is essential for many bread bakeries and pizzerias — that will turn out a rotating selection of breads from the Jewish diaspora: garwag, an Iraqi laffa cracker accompanied by black tea and salted cheese; ka’ak al quds, a ring-shaped, sesame-covered bread paired with labne, Palestinian za’atar and olive oil; and Morrocan harcha, a pan-fried semolina flatbread served warm with honey. Mor said they will likely move the tandoor oven to the new bakery and host the popular Loquat at Night laffa dinners more regularly there.
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“It’s a little bit of a sensitive concept to articulate but we have a Jewish bakery,” Mor said. “We really want our bakery to be a place where people feel connection. We also really emphasize the origin story of stuff that we make so people can know this is part of the Jewish story in Turkey, and this is how Turkish culture enriched Jewish culture.”
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There will also be a daily bialy with cream cheese and house-made lox, as well as varieties of sourdough, such as rye with caraway seeds or loaves with olives, herbs or cheese folded within. Challah will get turned into toast topped with pistachio butter and honey, egg-avocado salad or labne and roe.
A fridge will be stocked with grab-and-go challah sandwiches with labne, roasted eggplant and matboucha, or seasonal ingredients from the nearby Clement Street Farmers Market. There will be coffee courtesy of Four Barrel (which Mor and Geren also own), always served with Loquat’s house-made halva. Coffee drinks may include spins like cardamom rose ganache or a sweet sesame latte.
From left: Jodi Geren, Kristina Costa and Tal Mor of Loquat.
Justin Katigbak/Special to The Chronicle
The second bakery will allow for more wholesale offerings; Loquat currently sells pastries at Four Barrel, the Mill (Four Barrel’s sister bakery with Josey Baker), Blackbird Bookstore’s café in San Francisco and the brand-new Kitsch Coffee in Oakland. Mor said they hope to sell baked goods at more coffee shops, as well as babka and bread at local grocery stores.
The California Street space, designed by San Francisco architect Seth Boor (behind the look of Wolfsbane, Hedge Coffee, La Cigale and other prominent spots) will feel “cozy and communal,” Mor said. It will draw inspiration from the first Loquat, which maintained much of the feel of the former beloved 20th Century Cafe space. Unlike the original, the new bakery will have a parklet and “expansive” outdoor seating.
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Mor and Geren said they specifically focused on the Inner Richmond for expansion. The neighborhood has long been a food destination, full of dim sum shops, mom-and-pop markets and the city’s best croissants, but has seen a recent influx of high-profile openings, including Berkeley’s Rose Pizzeria and line-inducing coffee shops.
“We were really set on putting this location out in the avenues, with this area of the inner Richmond being our absolute ideal location,” Mor said. “It’s a vibrant neighborhood, the sidewalks are wider out there, and the neighborhood is filled with a mix of both younger residents and families.”