Esmeria Bakehouse: Pork Jowl Croissants and Thai Basil Danishes Hit the Bay | Eater SF
"A baker who trained at culinary school in Sacramento and then interned at a classic Berkeley bakery where Jackson Schnetz of Forma Bakery also cut his teeth spent ten years in that kitchen before pausing to work in warehouses; putting the flavors of his Filipino childhood on the plate using French techniques ultimately drew him back. He is launching a baking pop-up that will debut at a shop on Solano Avenue (1224 Solano Avenue, Albany) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 9, and he hopes to host more pop-ups in the fall — including another on Saturday, September 6 at Of All Places and events in Oakland and San Francisco. Menu highlights preserved exactly: polvoron cookies with yuzu juice, pink peppercorn, and quinoa; a tocilog croissant (an homage to Filipino breakfast) incorporating the sweetened and cured pork belly tocino sausage with garlic bechamel and a salted cured egg; a calamansi-Thai basil Danish that combines vanilla bean cream cheese and comes crowned with a Thai basil tuille; a mushroom croissant with soy-glazed oyster mushrooms from a Solano-based mushroom farm, shiso leaf panko, and a shichimi tōgarashi-spiced French onion sauce known as a soubise; and a sourdough pandesal, a Filipino bread roll. He emphasizes farm-to-table sourcing with singular flavors and wants to help grow the small-yet-mighty Asian American pastry scene — citing local players like Breadbelly, Neighbor Bakehouse, and b. Patisserie as examples. He now works at the Lawton Street location of a local coffee shop and credits baker and pastry chef Frank Sally of that Berkeley kitchen for taking him in during and after his inaugural internship. “Since I started baking, I wanted to open my own place,” he says. “I’m starting to realize I’m getting tired of baking other people’s things, you know?”" - Paolo Bicchieri
