{"id":310566,"date":"2026-05-11T17:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/310566\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:37:11","slug":"after-years-of-delays-a-cult-favorite-bakery-opens-a-massive-soma-cafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/310566\/","title":{"rendered":"After years of delays, a cult-favorite bakery opens a massive SoMa cafe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brittany Dunn-Holden of Saltwater Bakeshop.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been more than half a dozen years in the making, but in less than two weeks, Saltwater Bakeshop (opens in new tab)<\/a> will open a bakery and cafe \u2014 though not where fans expected. Owner Brittany Dunn-Holden found a permanent location in SoMa, where she\u2019s been quietly working for the past year. She\u2019ll open the retail storefront May 13, starting with limited hours and no espresso; on May 30, she plans to move to regular hours and roll out the full menu. \u201cIt feels surreal,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to set in until the doors are open and customers are in the space.\u201d Even welcoming friends and family felt \u201cemotionally overwhelming,\u201d she adds. \u201cThen, of course, my daughter ran up screaming for cake.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dunn-Holden gained attention as head baker for Mr. Holmes Bakehouse, the Tenderloin business behind 2016\u2019s viral cruffin. While girls with winged eyeliner snapped \u2019grams against a hot-pink neon sign, Dunn-Holden was buried deep in an underground kitchen, pumping out a thousand pastries a day. She left and opened Saltwater as a wholesale bakery in 2018, returning to her more seasonal, natural baking style as a beach babe who grew up in San Diego. With the goal of opening a storefront by 2020, she was meeting real estate agents and touring spaces when the world shut down. Saltwater pivoted to selling at farmers markets, where a dedicated following still shows up, rain or shine. They were thrilled when she signed a lease in the Richmond in 2023, then outraged when it got embroiled in red tape (opens in new tab)<\/a>. Now she has found a home in the former Chantal Guillon Macarons on Howard Street.<\/p>\n

\"ADunn-Holden will open a SoMa storefront in mid-May, after years of delays.<\/p>\n

Fans can expect croissants, folded with fatty, flavorful Normandy butter and topped with seasonal produce. There will also be blonde boules of sourdough, with a tight crumb and salty edge, thanks to a San Diego starter that\u2019s been bubbling for nearly 20 years. Farmers market favorites include a croissant with Parisian ham and Point Reyes toma cheese, sprinkled with toasty za\u2019atar; an orange-blossom cardamom bun splashed with vanilla-bean glaze (better known as the Cardi B); classic country loaves; and a fougasse baby loaf that is sometimes studded with garlic confit. These will all be offered alongside new pastries, such as a burnt sugar cake with brown sugar frosting, stacked three layers tall with cacao nibs pressed up the sides, and a tender brioche dough, tied into a knot with freshly ground cardamom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A\"Various<\/p>\n

The biggest addition will be sandwiches, which will make the most of the freshly baked bread. For breakfast, there will be a classic bacon, egg, and cheese (take note, former New Yorkers) and a chicken-sausage variation, both on pillowy potato buns with aioli. Lunchtime baguettes will come stuffed with roasted chicken, red peppers, and basil spread; turkey, avocado, and pickled onions; and roasted eggplant, zucchini, and peppers with hummus. Ritual Coffee, a longtime wholesale customer, will provide beans for drip coffee and espresso, and there will be spiced chai.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dunn-Holden worried about foot traffic in SoMa but has been pleasantly surprised to meet many friendly neighbors. The space itself \u201ccouldn\u2019t be better,\u201d she says, set up to accommodate volume baking, with an expansive retail area facing the street. It\u2019s 7,200 square feet, most dedicated to production. The storefront was crisp and white, so Dunn-Holden is making it more colorful and comfy. Customers will enter on the left, peruse a long pastry case, then grab a seat on a cozy couch or armchair, a tall barstool, or a long wooden bench. Perhaps most shocking, she\u2019s offering free wifi and outlets \u2014 making this one of the rare SF spaces where you\u2019re welcome to flip open a laptop. All of this beneath a sweeping mural of the Golden Gate Bridge and Cupid\u2019s Span by Sugar Murals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saltwater Bakeshop might be the biggest San Francisco bakery you don\u2019t know you\u2019re already eating \u2014 across many restaurants and coffee shops. If you\u2019ve ever crushed a crostini at Fiorella (opens in new tab)<\/a>, lobster roll at Broad Street Oyster Co. (opens in new tab)<\/a>, or pain au chocolat at Ritual (opens in new tab)<\/a>, Excelsior (opens in new tab)<\/a>, or Third Wheel (opens in new tab)<\/a>, then you\u2019ve tasted Dunn-Holden\u2019s work. And she\u2019ll continue serving at farmers markets: at the Ferry Plaza on Saturdays and Clement Street and Fort Mason on Sundays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s shaping up to be a big year for big bakeries in SoMa. A couple of blocks away, Rize Up Bakery (opens in new tab)<\/a> will open a retail storefront<\/a> by July, selling colorful sourdough with fun mix-ins like jalape\u00f1o, bacon, cheddar, and purple ube. Dunn-Holden says she\u2019s excited for neighbor baker Azikiwee \u201cZ\u201d Anderson and has nothing but love and respect for his distinct style. \u201cIt\u2019s like chocolate chip cookies,\u201d Dunn-Holden says. \u201cEverybody likes a different style \u2014 it\u2019s just what people want.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps a rising tide lifts all bakeries, and this we know to be true: You can never satisfy the craving for good croissants and sourdough in San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brittany Dunn-Holden of Saltwater Bakeshop. It\u2019s been more than half a dozen years in the making, but in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[22660,35067,8456,101,103,102,104,106,105,1911],"class_list":["post-310566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bakeries","tag-eat-here","tag-restaurant-openings","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-soma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310566","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=310566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}