{"id":437664,"date":"2026-08-19T21:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/437664\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T21:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:38:13","slug":"follow-the-sweet-aromas-and-long-lines-to-oaklands-latest-buzzy-bakery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/437664\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow the sweet aromas and long lines to Oakland\u2019s latest buzzy bakery"},"content":{"rendered":"

A weekend ago, while on the hunt for my next pastry fix, I found myself wandering around a large, nondescript industrial lot in West Oakland. There was no storefront, no sandwich board, sign thrower or smoke signal that could\u2019ve pointed me towards one of the buzziest bakeries in the East Bay right now. But it turns out the answer was much simpler than I thought. All I had to do was follow the smell of yeast and the faded chalk lines scrawled into the concrete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2311 Magnolia St., Oakland; instagram.com\/studio_estepan\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow the Instagram account for the schedule. The next sale is Sunday, Aug. 23 at noon. <\/p>\n

Studio Estepan, located at 2311 Magnolia St., sits inside an industrial artisan space called O2 Artisans Aggregate<\/a>, and is what baker-owner Estevan Silva calls a \u201cpart-time bakery\u201d. But the label only speaks to the bakery\u2019s schedule, not his ambition. Each month, he announces his opening dates via Instagram, but typically operates for three Saturdays at a time. He intentionally keeps the operation small to experiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted it to be a showcase of myself, like more of a creative pursuit than a business,\u201d Silva said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Customers line up inside the O2 Artisans Aggregate industrial lot in West Oakland to get a taste of Studio Estepan. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh<\/p>\n

Born in Southern California, Silva has been baking for over a decade, handling bread programs at lauded restaurants like three-Michelin star Quince, Verjus and Cotogna. But in an effort to understand all things bread, Silva bounced around to other spots like Jane the Bakery in San Francisco and Midwife and The Baker in Mountain View. He\u2019s even slung donuts at the now-closed Nickel Diner in downtown Los Angeles. His efforts paid off \u2014 earning him the 2019 StarChefs San Francisco Rising Star Award<\/a> for his work at Quince, where he developed its famed black rice sourdough. But then COVID came, and Silva, like many, took a beat to reevaluate his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID was a challenging moment for a lot of people. I think a lot of us got burnt out,\u201d Silva said. \u201cI was at a moment in my life where I wasn\u2019t sure if I wanted to work 16 hours a day, because that was what I was doing. I was like the only person baking for Quince, Cotogna and Verjus. I was baking for three outlets, working like six days a week, 16 hours a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he pivoted and left Quince to go into baking consulting where, for four years, he helped restaurants and other food businesses like Fiorella and Del Popolo deepen their understanding of flour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Estevan Silva pulls out steaming tray of his KimCHEESE bread, which is filled with kimchi, emmentaler cheese, and sesame. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh<\/p>\n

\u201cThey needed help troubleshooting, so like someone who really understands the process behind not just making and baking bread, but [someone] who also understands flour in a deeper way, and that\u2019s kind of like what I really tried to focus on,\u201d Silva said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Silva initially acquired the bakery\u2019s 1,000-square-foot space to expand his consulting business and have a commercial kitchen to design recipes and troubleshoot remotely for clients. After a difficult loss, he found himself gravitating back towards breadmaking \u2014 not as a demanding career but as a creative outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a moment last year where things kind of took a slump for me personally, and business-wise,\u201d Silva said. \u201cMy mom passed away, and I had to kind of slow down everything. That [was] the moment where I decided or realized that while I don\u2019t want to be trapped in this full-time bakery lifestyle. There is something innate telling me I need to make bread for my own happiness, and for the happiness of other people. That\u2019s [why] I decided to take a step back from consulting and reactivate the space as a part-time bakery to see if I can make that work.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Fresh baked cinnamon rolls topped with kokuto cinnamon sugar, ready for Silva\u2019s homemade cream cheese glaze. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh<\/p>\n

So, in early April, Silva took the plunge and opened Studio Estepan. He operates the bakery with his partner Yoojin Chung, an invaluable part of the operation, Silva notes, who handles administrative tasks, rings in customers and manages the bakery\u2019s social media presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bakery name itself is a play on Silva\u2019s first name (Estevan\u2013or in this case EstePAN), an old joke a friend of Chung\u2019s made years ago that stuck with him. It\u2019s also a reference to the size of the space, and Silva\u2019s desire to maintain a small operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to use the name \u2018studio\u2019 because I was always looking for something small that didn\u2019t require me to buy big equipment and would kind of force me to do a smaller production style to focus more on the product, not the volume,\u201d Silva said. \u201c I want people to come in and know and understand that everything was touched by me. I did everything from the mixing to the shaping and baking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Studio Estepan\u2019s chocopan (left), filled with valrhona chocolate ganache, and the blue corn concha (right) made with masienda blue corn. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh<\/p>\n

Silva\u2019s menu rarely changes, with the exception of an item swap or two each week, yet he says the final lineup is still in the works. The menu is inspired by global flavors, and his travels to countries like the Philippines, Italy, France and Mexico. Take Silva\u2019s olive sticks ($4.50) for example \u2014 the crusty, slightly chewy elongated sticks of baked lean bread are inspired by Chung\u2019s favorite olive bread from Princi, a Milan bakery, and are made with yuzu kosho and lemon zest. Other offerings like his sourdough shokupan loaf ($15) and his mochapan ($5), which is filled with coffee and brown sugar, are inspired by Japanese bakery favorites.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Popular items include his blue corn concha ($5), an airy Mexican sweet bread with a crumbly sugar topping made from masienda blue corn, and his salt bread ($4). Silva crafts 180 \u2014 200 salt breads each week, hand-shaping semi-soft sweet dough around small blocks of imported Maison Bourdier butter, which he then also wraps around the dough and bakes for maximum richness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Silva\u2019s dedication to fostering deep relationships with food producers and vendors also shapes his current menu. Most of his doughs are crafted with finely milled heritage wheat, which he purchases from activist and agroecological farmer Farmer Mai<\/a> in Sebastopol. The smoked cheddar sausages that he sources for his sausage pretzel ($5) is from Oakland meat company Cream Co<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Studio Estepan\u2019s popular salt bread filled with Maison Bordier butter imported from France. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh<\/p>\n

Silva shares the bakery space with Melissa Chou and her bakery Grand Opening<\/a>. Chou, a San Francisco native and fellow Quince alum, has also worked in other renowned Michelin-starred spots like Aziza and Mister Jiu\u2019s. After lamenting with Chou about the struggles of a brick-and-mortar expansion \u2014 like rent, construction, and labor costs \u2013 he invited her to share the O2 bakery space. While a majority of the back kitchen is filled with ovens and equipment, Silva and Chou split the front, setting up two separate distribution tables. While Silva\u2019s set-up takes the right, Chou\u2019s Grand Opening resides on the left, where she offers an array of desserts, such as her burnt honey pie (which was named one of the best dishes in the country by the New York Times<\/a>), smoky char siu-filled baos, and passion fruit macadamia nut cookies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that together, her and I offer a really unique experience you can\u2019t find in most bakeries,\u201d Silva said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the key to snagging a treat at either spot is to line up early. While both bakeries open at 10 a.m, lines start trailing down the industrial lot much earlier as customers, like partners Raji Vasireddi and Sidney Plummer, vie for a spot. Vasireddi has been following Chou\u2019s work for years, and recently learned about Studio Estepan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Argi Vasireddi (left) and their partner Sidney Plummer (right) hold several treats they bought outside of Studio Estepan. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh<\/p>\n

Vasireddi has a $30 \u201cbakery budget\u201d, or funds they reserve each week that are dedicated to satisfying their sweet tooth. They often turn to bakeries like Studio Estepan and Grand Opening, as opposed to multinational commercial bakeries and coffee shops like Starbucks or Panera Bread for fresh baked goods.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just like I\u2019m paying for something that\u2019s tasty for me, but I\u2019m also paying to tell them like \u2018Hey, I love what you\u2019re doing and I want you to keep doing it.\u2019\u201d Vasireddi said. \u201c Even if I only get like one or two things, that\u2019s still so much better than getting six things that were made in a factory and had more machines involved than people.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s dedicated to keeping Studio Estepan small, Silva is open to eventually expanding the space to give customers a more comprehensive experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do recognize that if I want to be able to offer a better experience for people who support me, I inevitably will have to grow,\u201d Silva said. \u201cIt\u2019s challenging because then the realities of dealing with payroll, insurance and all that stuff changes the dynamic of your business, which is another reason why I\u2019m keeping things very small right now. But I do see a bigger future for Studio Estepan. Maybe it\u2019ll no longer be studio but just Estepan. Like a full bakery with coffee, food and maybe some wine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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