No. 70: Blackstrap Molasses Gingerbread from Lotta's Bakery
SFoodie's countdown of the 92 best things to eat and drink in San Francisco, 2011 edition.
Gil Riego Jr. Lotta's Bakery's blackstrap molasses gingerbread, $2.75.
Small, owlish Earl Darny does American baking like few pastry chefs in San Francisco: flaky, butter-crust pies with fruit he sources from Heart of the City farmers' market; spiral cinnamon rolls; plump layer cakes. But in the four years since Darny opened Lotta's Bakery, he's gotten almost exactly zero notice from the local food press. 
Maybe it's because so much of what Darny bakes has the throwback feel of the well loved. "Nobody does stuff about you unless you're the hot ticket," Darny says in a matter-of-fact voice, and Lotta's ― which takes its name both from famed S.F. personality Lotta Crabtree and Darny's drag alter ego, Lotta Lust ― is definitely not the hot ticket. The dominant color here is a grandma shade of cake-box pink. And because Darny shares the place with Sweet Antiques, which belongs to his life partner, Richard Pullano, one side of the room is crammed with shiny Deco toasters, a sleek ceramic panther from the 1940s, and scores of other vintage chotchkes.
Darny's amazing blackstrap molasses gingerbread, too, is grounded in the past. The recipe comes from alpha blogger David Lebovitz, who developed it when he was pastry chef at long-defunct Monsoon. The inch-and-a-half slabs Darny cuts from the loaf are sticky and black, minutely whiskery with fresh ginger fibers, and with a snarly, nearly smoky taste of the blackstrap, the dregs of the sugar-refining process. The thing is almost savage in its depth of flavor and the dankness of its crumb, served up in the city's frilliest pastry shop.
Lotta's Bakery: 1720 Polk (at Clay), 359-9039.
Dishes in our series so far:
92: Goat tacos from El Norteño
91: Faux shark's fin soup at Benu
90: Esperpento's alcachofas a la plancha
89: Poco Dolce's olive oil chocolate bar
88: Decantr's chicken-liver mousseline
87: Outerlands' levain bread
86: Fraîche's frozen yogurt
85: Gyro King's spinach pie
84: Tandoori fish from Lahore Karahi
83: Braised oxtail and daikon from Namu
82: Golden Gate Bakery's custard tart
81: Commonwealth's cured foie gras with umeboshi purée
80: Star Stream's Liège-style waffle
79: Mexican hot chocolate from La Oaxaqueña
78: Meatball sandwich from Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe
77: Cheesecake from Zanze's
76: Chicken pepian at San Miguel
75: Macau iced coffee at Vega/Special Xtra
74: Comstock Saloon's Pisco Punch
73: Hai Ky Mi Gia's duck leg noodle soup
72: Sauerbraten at Walzwerk
71: Boudin noir at Cafe Bastille
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