{"id":266045,"date":"2026-04-13T19:52:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266045\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:52:06","slug":"get-a-two-bite-moment-of-bliss-in-an-egg-tart-from-east-bay-favorite-patisserie-rotha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266045\/","title":{"rendered":"Get a Two-Bite Moment of Bliss in an Egg Tart From East Bay Favorite Patisserie Rotha"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\u00e2tisserie Rotha<\/a> is one of the East Bay\u2019s best bakeries, set inside a low-key standalone building on San Pablo Avenue in Albany. It\u2019s the East Bay equivalent of a San Francisco shop that draws lines before opening (See: The 7:45 a.m. line<\/a> at Butter & Crumble<\/a>); Rotha has its own following of regulars and a line that routinely extends into the street.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not viral pastries or trendy drinks that lure fans to the queue each day, but rather classic, textbook examples of French pastry-dom. Croissants, bostocks, caneles, Basque cheesecake, brioche nature, far Breton, and more fill the case four days a week, oftentimes selling out early. The bakery comes from Rotha Ieng, who graduated from culinary school in Paris<\/a> and trained under pastry chef legend Pierre Herm\u00e9. Ieng opened his shop in July 2018, incrementally earning acclaim \u2014 and those lines \u2014 through word of mouth. Here\u2019s what to expect when you\u2019re waiting in line.<\/p>\n

The obscure building in Albany announces itself simply \u2014 \u201cRotha: artisan French pastry\u201d \u2014 in gold letters on a black and gray building, a slight smell of baking goods in the air. In keeping with the simple exterior, the interior is minimal; on the customer side, it is a counter and register, and 80 percent is the kitchen (the important part). All the goods are on display, and hand-written name cards offer the French name of each pastry, with English description and price, in charming half-cursive.<\/p>\n

This is not a sitdown operation, you\u2019re fully expected to take your goods and be on your way (or, if you insist, claim a seat on one of two benches outside the shop). Still, the owner is kind and easy to interact with; during a recent visit, he pulled open the blinds to the shop, observed the line waiting in about-to-be-blustery weather, and opened the doors early.<\/p>\n

There are no drinks. Plan accordingly.<\/p>\n

Yes, there are lines. Yes, Rotha does sell out of items early. From what I\u2019ve experienced and seen in driving past the bakery, arriving 15 to 20 minutes before opening is the sweet spot to get access to all the goods. Bring a friend. Talk to your line neighbors. Listen to a podcast. Game plan your order. Read something on your Kindle app. The time passes quickly, and the line goes fast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"P\u00e2tisserie Rotha is one of the East Bay\u2019s best bakeries, set inside a low-key standalone building on San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[28829,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-266045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-dining-reports","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}