Can't Wait for Sandbox Bakery to Open in Bernal? Score Its Morning Pastries in SOMA

J. Birdsall

Pastries from Sandbox show polished French technique.

Sunday is the expected launch date for Sandbox (835 Cortland at Gates), the long-awaited Bernal bakery and sandwich café from ex-Slanted Door pastry chef Mutsumi Takehara and husband Mike Bradford. Can't wait till then? You can get a taste of Takehara's quietly accomplished breakfast pastries at The Creamery (685 Fourth St. at Townsend).

Born in Japan, Takehara trained at La Farine in Oakland before moving on to a brief stint at Chez Panisse and longer gigs at Rubicon and, of course, The Slanted Door. Judging from the croissants and Danish ($2 each) in The Creamery's case, La Farine's traditional aims and polished French technique seem to have exercised a big influence on the pastry chef's style. Though Takehara is expected to play with Asian flavors at Sandbox, don't expect mind-tweaking combinations or into-the-void juxtapositions.

Indeed, Takehara might be S.F.'s anti-Villavelazquez. Her airy croissants exude a kind of phantom butteriness, the blueberry Danish a disciplined focus on sweet-tart fruit. Scones -- like the blackberry one pictured above -- feel a bit looser, more informal. The thing we like best among Sandbox's morning line? The small muffins - especially the bran, with its tender and elastic crumb, and its dark distillation of molasses-y sweetness. Banana's good, too.