What ever happened to Blum's?

[foodseek]

Athough at a risk of dating myself, I must confess to remembering with fondness a San Francisco institution located across from Union Square on Geary. Blum's was not only a regular stop for many shopping ladies, men, and families for coffee and a slice of the infamous Coffee Crunch cake but also had a great luncheon menu with terrific clubhouse sandwich, welsh rarebit, and what I remember most fondly, a sweet mix of peppers with onion condiment for sandwiches. The decor and dessert display always delighted me and was an oasis away from the hectic pace of shopping especially during the holiday season. I wonder why this type of restaurant has disappeared from the San Francisco landscape? Can Chowhounders recommend somewhere else similar to the feel of Blum's? I long for a sit down luncheon spot with a similar menu and sweetness of Blum's. It doesn't have to be in the Union Square area, for a walk down memory lane I will travel great distances. Many thanks in advance.

[jaiko]

I remember the Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake when I first arrived in SF in 1969. But I have to admit, I thought it was too sweet back then, so I definitely wouldn't want it now. But I was very fond of Fantasia. They made fabulous chocolate-dipped Florentines, and I LOVE that cookie.

I also discovered the wonderful date bars at Eppler's. Much of their stuff wasn't to my taste, but those date bars were great. One of my favorite bar cookies of all time. To this day in my mind it's the best use of dates, for which otherwise I have little use.

Interestingly, when we went to Gaumenkitzel/Berkeley for the first time, soon after they opened (they weren't serving dinner yet), they were selling a pastry I hadn't seen in decades. Their Nussecken was the authentic version of a pastry the old Eppler's Bakery used to make, and something I remember from Chicago, when old-time Polish and German bakeries and delis still existed. It is always sweet – a crumbly, marzipan-based pastry layered with caramel, streusel (the dry crunchy European kind, not the moist-crumbled American style) and chopped nuts, with one end dipped in dark sweet chocolate. You can't eat it without milk or tea or coffee to wash it down, and shouldn't even try, LOL!

We were back at Gaumenkitzel recently for dinner, but their pastries seem to have changed to American style, which was disappointing. The Kirschtorte was almost unrecognizable from the authentic style they had offered in the beginning.

[hyperbowler]

That's too bad. They still made stollen over the holidays. Not sure how it compared to previous year's, but it fulfilled expectations.

[JoyM]

I grew up in NYC, but I vaguely remember a restaurant called Blum's that my mother would take me to for ice cream after a Saturday afternoon shopping trip. Same chain? Anyone know?

[trash]

I suppose it is possible. After I. Magnin, a CA department store chain with Blum's restaurants and products like their hot fudge sauce and coffee crunch pieces, started to disintegrate and be assimilated into various other chains, including Macy's, a restaurant could have materialized in New York City. Anybody know?

[trash]

Found a blog comment suggesting a vague memory of a possible location on the Upper East Side near Bloomingdale's.

[cblog]

Blums was where Fiorucci was, on East 59th st. Its decor was a sort of a dark pink and a light grey/almond. Ice cream sodas and candy! Light collation type food too, crab louie, etc. A special place, mom took me there to celebrate after I shed a leg cast. This would put it in the late sixties or early seventies. Thanks for asking, great to remember.

[JoyM]

That does sound vaguely familiar... our Sat. afternoon shopping trips always took us to Bloomingdales, and this would be right down the street. Right time period, too. Ah, the memories, that is to say the increasingly vague memories we have, as senility sets in.

[seckhoff]

Yes, always after or during shopping trips. The greatest ice cream concoctions.

[seckhoff]

You're playing my song. I remember the restaurant in New York so well—I even remember the names of the sundaes. Almondette Divine, I call your name! We ate a lot of hot dogs there. I loved the decor too. And the Little Cinners.

[manapualabs]

I love this thread, it started in 2007! My memory of Blum's on Polk Street: in the '60's my uncle had a bakery on Polk called Hokamps and my mom would take us to go visit him and then we would go across the street to Blum's to eat! Yummy times.

[WPC111]

I just wanted to add the banana split was the best in the universe. Maybe it was because I was a kid but that banana split was HUGE. Soda fountain and all. Not sure which location she would take me to. Did I say I loved Blums???? I do!

[LAMark]

Just wanted to add a remembrance. There was a Blum's at the Stanford Shopping Center in the 70s (and 80s?). Frequented by old Atherton and Woodside ladies sipping tea. I went for the ice cream sundaes. There was one called an Almondette that had everything a hungry young man could want, including a great dark chocolate sauce of some kind. It was $5 which was a lot of money then. But I went often anyway. I'd love to find a similar treat in SF today.

[Sharuf]

I wonder if your sundae was the one I recall (although in not much detail). It had a chocolate sauce which was semi-solid (scoop-able) and sorta between fudge and mousse. It was amazing!

[LAMark]

Yep that's the one. They originally called it "Almondette Divine."

[Hughlipton]

Just to throw in one, does anyone remember the Emeradl Isle Frappe which my now retired law partner used to prounounce as one word with one syllable? Anybody want to try and take a crack at the recipe. Has anyone had an ice cream frappe of late?

[WPC111]

I would take the train or the bus from Los Gatos to SF to spend weekends with my Noni. We go straight from the station to Blums. I could have whatever I wanted but it was always the same thing. A burger and a banana split with one of those HUGE rope suckers they made. Blums and my weekend trips to hang with my Noni will always be a fond memory for me. Blums can never be duplicated. This was all early 60s.

[williro3]

I use to live in Sacramento CA back in the 60’s and early 70’s. We had a small Blum's there. My mother use to go to the one in SF. She had a recipe for a Blum's pie that was one of the best I have ever eaten. It had a chocolate and nut crust, a thick chocolate crème filling and was covered with mounds coffee favored whipped cream and shaved chocolate. She had gotten the recipe out of a news paper I think. She passed away last summer and her cook book has disappeared. I was hoping Blum's was still around. I would love to try and make that pie. She also use to get me a birthday cake from a bakery in Sacramento every year that sounds a lot like the coffee crunch cake being disused. Vanilla sponge cake with coffee flavored whipped cream and coffee caramel crunch. The best cake I have ever had. She tried to make it for me but could not get the coffee caramel crunch quite the same. I think she tried Heath candy bars. Still good. She was a good mom. Does anybody know how the coffee crunch was made? It would just melt in your mouth so good.

[Robert Lauriston]

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/3942...

[mariadnoca]

Was it a toffee pie? Recently spoke to a friend about Blum's and she mentioned having some recipes (including what she thinks might be a toffee pie and the crunch cake) given a friend of the family ran one of the Blum's. I have her off looking for recipes. I don't think anyone who grew up in the 60/70's in the Bay Area could go without some special occasion at least once, that didn't involved Blum's and of course Mr. Weil who invented the crunch cake went on to open Fantasia's.

[Bay Gelldawg]

Many years ago, before the internet, I read in the Chronicle that Y. Sweet Shop in Japantown had the famous Coffee Crunch Cake. Being a transplant, I had no childhood memory of it, but wanting to experience a taste of old San Francisco I went there. They were out of it. I called the next week and reserved one, getting an entire cake just to taste one piece - I was single and lived alone.

I was disappointed. Without the nostalgia factor, it was just yellow cake with white frosting. Way too sweet, no real flavor. The coffee crunch was thin bits of hard coffee candy that coated the top (and maybe the sides) of the cake. It didn't add much. And the coffee candy stuck in my teeth, as these things do.

I agree with the other poster who noted that while this might have been special for kids at the time, it just doesn't have the same appeal to adults.

I am intrigued by the mention of Lemon Goddess Pie and the frog cake. What were they?

[rln]

Bay G- you make me feel so much better. My husband and I just bought a whole cake a few weekends ago because I was on a quest to try it and they were out of slices. They did say we could freeze it though. I was mixed about it. I only had one piece. I thought the textures were good but it was too sweet for me, it was yellow cake with whipped cream (which was good)-- I thought something in the layers was missing. The coffee crunch became bitter to me after a few bites. I want to try their other cakes. This all said, I would have another piece of the cake.

I know it's a different cake, but I love that almond cake in San Jose from two bakeries-- similar but instead of coffee crunch, it's coated with almonds.

[wendi1411]

I do remember that crunch cake but I also remember a wonderful hot fudge sundae that I would get whenever we would have lunch there. Does anyone know the recipe or where I could purchase the hot fudge? It was fabulous, but probably not that hard to make.

[trash]

I don't believe you can purchase it now that I. Magnin is gone, and I've never seen nor heard of a recipe for it. Joy of Cooking, the cookbook, has a recipe for the same sort of sauce that hardens on the ice cream, how hard depends on the length of the boil (I go three to four minutes).

[Belmo]

Oh yes, that hot-fudge Sundae. My parents took my brother and me to Blum's (on Polk) in the 1950s to celebrate good report cards (always my brother's, rarely mine). We all always ordered the "Goshawful Gooey", which arrived in a heavy gobblet, with the thick fudge topping, and whipped cream and a maraschino cherry atop that. I seem to recall that we could specify what ice-cream we could have in that blissful confection, but am not sure. Thanks so much for reviving this wonderful memory. PS: We all got this treat regardless of who got the great report card !!

[ola]

When my mother worked at the Emporium on Market in the 50s, my dad used to take us three kids to Blum's for their Coffeesta Sundae before picking her up once a month on a Saturday afternoon. If memory serves, it was vanilla ice cream, hot fudge syrup, coffee crunch and whipped cream.

[Parigi]

Very moving memory.

[Rachel from Scratch]

I would like to perfect my own version of the Coffee Crunch Cake and I am lucky enough to have a copy of Ernest Weils' Love to Bake Pastry Cookbook with the original recipe. But I need testers who have tasted the real thing! I hope my mom (born and raised in SF) had this cake at Blum's and can help me out.

[sugartoof]

It would have almost been impossible to avoid, that's how synonymous it was with San Francisco food culture. It was the type of thing served at office parties, special events, etc. but not as a high end item like a Saint Honore cake, it was more of a casual treat. The question is if she consciously remembers it.

It would be great to see these start to make a comeback.

-----
Saint Honore Cafe
862 San Pablo Ave, Albany, CA 94706

[OldTimer]

I used to live in Polk Gulch about 50 years ago. Blum's was on the corner of California and Polk. One evening I was walking up Polk to go to Swan, and a woman came out of Blum's and got into her car parked in front. To open the door, she put the Coffee Crunch cake on top on the car, got in and forgot the cake. As she drove off I screamed "STOP!", she slammed on the brakes and you guessed it...the cake went sliding off the car. In retrospect, I should have offered to salvage the cake...but I missed the chance. Them was the absolute best cakes, almost as good as the Ilona Torte from Sweet Things.

[chocolatetartguy]

My grandparents lived on Clay on the otherside of Van Ness and Blum's on Polk was a frequent haunt for our large extended family. My aunt saw Bobby Kennedy and family there once. I miss the almondettes and the nut candies with the cinnamon sugar on the outside.

[slew]

I live just up the block from the old Blum's on Polk & California Street. I thought the chain just kinda kicked the bucket and all of them shutdown at the same time... But I was very young then and don't recall the details... When Blum's closed, I believe new owners/tenants opened a place called, 'The Haven.' Years later, I believe most of the building was destroyed by a fire and eventually torn down and now we have a that horrible mini-mall... ;)

[stanbee]

Schubert's Bakery on Clement St will make a coffee crunch cake to order. It's listed on their cake menu. Have never tried tried it or Blum's.

You might call them to see if it's the same as Blum's.

-----
Schubert's Bakery
521 Clement St, San Francisco, CA 94118

[sugartoof]

http://tjrecipes.com/?page_id=3306

Previously mentioned recipe from that book can be found free at this link.

[indigirl]

Blum's coffee crunch cake! Fantasia! What a huge slice of early childhood nostalgia... I remember the total bliss of being allowed to choose a selection of petit fours at Fantasia. It seemed to me that they must be the food of the fairies. Coffee crunch cake for birthday parties :)

[cosmogrrl]

Is it just my childhood rose tinting these desserts, or were these desserts more magically scrumptious than say, Citizen Cake?

[indigirl]

I'm pretty sure it's the glow of childhood nostalgia, for me at least. Some things, I loved eating when I ate them but I probably wouldn't eat them now. Well, maybe just one petit four... if you insist.... ;)

[pilinut]

I'm pretty sure that it's not just nostalgia: I remember (and very much miss) Fantasia! Those petits fours were pure bliss. As a foreign student, the most precious part of my Christmas luggage back to Manila consisted of delights from Fantasia.

[cosmogrrl]

I've not found anyplace to replace the feeling of Blum's, and I sorely miss it. Was a huge treat for me as a kid. Loved the sandwiches too, but remember the desserts more fondly. Still despise Macy's for taking over that space (and for ruining the beautiful interior of I. Magnin but I digress). I really want Lemon Goddess Pie. I fondly remember my dessert being brought to me with a napkin on top of it, the napkin was whisked away by the waitress to reveal a gorgeous frog cake and icing sculpture; the frog was a lovely shade of green. Ah bliss!

I also miss PamPam's steak soup!

The Rotunda isn't even close to what Blum's was IMHO. Citizen Cake is good, but not the same style of baking.

[sugartoof]

"The Rotunda isn't even close to what Blum's was IMHO. Citizen Cake is good, but not the same style of baking."

Exactly. Not the same type of cake, at all. Blum's Coffee Cake was it's own breed.
It makes me sad so many Chowhounders likely never got to know the real thing.

The version from Yasukochi's Sweet Stop is supposed to be the original recipe, but the cake looks as if it's more of a light Japanese style cake instead. I got the feeling they had modernized the recipe. I didn't want to buy a whole cake to find out, but it sure looked off. Anyone familiar with the original want to vouch for it?

There are supposedly faithful replicas available for mail order, from outside the city, now.

-----
Yasukochi's Sweet Stop
1790 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA

[Bay Gelldawg]

What was Lemon Goddess Pie?

What was the frog cake called?

They both sound wonderful!

[cosmogrrl]

Lemon Goddess Pie was a variation on Lemon Meringue pie I believe. As to the name of the frog cake I have no idea. I must have been about 5 or 6 when I ordered it, maybe even 4. However it was so special and produced with such wonderful presentation I still remember it, as well as how delicious it was

[omasciarotte]

I know this is a bit off on a tangent but, Valerie Confections in LA <www.valerieconfections.com> now sells a recreated Blum's Coffee Crunch cake.

[wolfe]

The brackets screw up the link.
http://www.valerieconfections.com/

[Windy]

I saw that too. But it's nearly twice the price of Yasukochi's Sweet Shop in Japantown.

[statewide]

I have bought the crunch cake there it tasted just like the original! By the way there was a Blum's in the Union Square area and one at Stonestown.

[dinnerout]

I remember going to Blum's on Shattuck in Berkeley as a kid...one sure doesn't see that type of place around any more...right downtown you could always pop into the Rotunda at Neiman Marcus and see what you think - the room is beautiful. Not quite the same display of baked goods concept, though!

[Atomica]

The man who invented the Coffee Crunch Cake, Ernest Weil, put out a book last year called "Love to Bake." It's a great book. I have a good friend who is a very high-end pastry chef and looks at baking books with an extremely critical eye--even he thought the book was wonderful.

[foodseek]

Thanks so much for rec. regarding Weil's book. I love cookbooks-actually a hobby of mine to collect- especially ones that are related to San Francisco. Will go out in search of book today. Thanks again.

[Atomica]

I meant to include the website. Mr. Weil self-published the book. Unfortunately, I see that the book is sold out. Maybe he will have more printed . . . Write to him and see.
http://www.lovetobakecookbook.com/

ETA: I looked on bookfinder and found 1 copy for $40.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listin...

[Nancy Berry]

You can download the entire cookbook in pdf (Acrobat) format at the site for $21.65.

[foodseek]

Thanks so much for information. Hopefully, baked goods will be half as good as Mr. Weil's.

[Mick Ruthven]

I just looked at that website and he was the founder and owner of Fantasia. Wasn't that the high-end bakery on California St. in Laurel Heights in SF?

[wally]

Yes, that is what I remember.

[Sitka]

I bought a copy of the book a few months ago at - I think - Books Inc in Burlingame on Burlingame Ave.

The recipe was published in the San Mateo Times a couple of years ago.

[Mick Ruthven]

The book website has a donate-to-a-nonprofit then download-the-PDF-book deal. Has anyone done that?

I can view the website properly in IE8 but not in Firefox 3.6.3 (all images are missing).

http://lovetobakecookbook.com

[Robert Lauriston]

Site looks fine to me in Firefox 3.6.3.

[Mick Ruthven]

Isn't software fun! All the images are still missing for me in Firefox 3.6.3.

[Sharuf]

Sears was like that. Maybe still is? (Haven't been there in years.)

[Bookmark]

The Blum's I recall going to in the 50s was the one on Polk, a block or two South of California. I don't remember the Union Sq one.

BTW there's a lil' bakery located inside a lil' grocery just North of the SF Japan Ctr that makes a very, very good copy of the famous (or infamous if you're on a diet) 'Blum's Crunch Cake'. I forget the name. Only know it by sight. I'm certain other CHs will come forward w/ the particulars.

[Bookmark]

A shower has cleared the cobwebs.

Yasukochi's Sweet Stop, 1790 Sutter, 415 931-8165.

I think he got the crunch recipe from a Blum's candymaker he worked with in the 70s.

[foodseek]

Thanks for pointing me toward the Coffee Crunch cake must find an event to celebrate now.

[Bookmark]

I think there's a dentist's office next door.

[ML8000]

I think you can also get the coffee crunch cake at a Bakery in Chinatown. A lot of Chinese immigrants got jobs at Blum's back in the day and when it closed, they moved on and started their own shops.

[Melanie Wong]

The version at Eastern Bakery in SF Chinatown is lousy now, used to be much better.

[Parigi]

"The Blum's I recall going to in the 50s was the one on Polk, a block or two South of California. I don't remember the Union Sq one."

In the 70s, there was a Blum's occupying what is a part of Macy's today. I found the desserts too sweet and the soda-fountatin pink palace setting too cloying.
I vaguely remember PamPam's good burgers. Then I moved to Paris and was told by an old expat that Paris had a PamPam too, the first resto in the city to serve American food. It was called PamPam East. Or maybe West, depending on which part of the glob you come from, I guess, :-).
Fantasia had truly wonderful and not too sweet desserts.
The places I miss most from old SF are US Café, where I discovered pasta al pesto, and House of Piroshki, whose old Russian owner used to speak Mandarin to me.

[Mick Ruthven]

You'll find many posts here lamenting the passing of the House of Piroshki. But we have a worthy successor, not the same of course but quite good, at Golden Orb in San Rafael.

-----
Golden Orb
811 4th St, San Rafael, CA 94901

[wolfe]

Hey Mick I put this an another thread and I guess you missed it but Scott M says no more Golden Orb.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/7178...

-----
Golden Orb
811 4th St, San Rafael, CA 94901

[Mick Ruthven]

Wow, so sorry to hear that. They were the only source of good piroshkis that I know of in the Bay Area.

[Parigi]

Oops I meant globe, not glob.

[larochelle]

Other Niemans or tea at one of the hotels, I can't think if any public place with that kind of atmosphere.

FYI - the coffee crunch cake was famous, not infamous.
infamous
1 : having a reputation of the worst kind : notoriously evil
2 : causing or bringing infamy : DISGRACEFUL
3 : convicted of an offense bringing infamy

[foodseek]

I stand corrected..you are right it was famous not infamous. Sorry.

[Robert Lauriston]

The Rotunda at Neiman Marcus? Citizen Cake?

[larryskim]

You can all get the Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake recipe for FREE on the Martha Stewart website! Delicious memories..