SF: Citizen Cake revisited - the Patisserie

[rworange]

I haven't been to Citizen Cake in quite a while.

I had some things to do in SF and my original plan was to head to North Beach for pannetone. I was late and on Franklin and didn't think I'd beat the traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge if I tried to fit in North Beach. So I thought I'd check out what nearby Citizen Cake had for the holidays
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/675435#5273344

They did a major remodel since my last visit. There is now a separate patiserrie. The restaurant seems more intimate and inviting. It always struck me as a cold and sterile place. This looks much better.

There's a really nice coffee menu and the hot cocoa was the best I had this season.

They have dropped the breads and ice cream which makes me sad. I liked both quite a lot. In fact the ice cream was the reason I visited Citizen Cake so much in the past.

The cupcake menu has expanded with over a half dozen cupcakes. They had some holiday cupcakes but regulars include
- Rocky Road Cupcake - chocolate chiffon cake and topped with chocolate frosting folded with chunks of Citizen Cake marshmallow and walnuts then dip it in chocolate.
- Chocolate Chip Mania Cupcake nBrown sugar cupcake and frosting both with chocolate chips, garnished with a mini chocolate chip cookie
-Pineapple Upside-down Cupcake - pineapple chunks underneath buttermilk cake topped with a passion fruit frosting & coconut

Some of the special order cupcakes sound really swell too
- Persian Love Cupcake Chiffon cake with a rose buttercream filling, saffron punch, rose confectioner’s glaze, pistachios and candied violets.
- Sticky Toffee Cupcake Date cake with a toffee injection and coconut frosting
- Key Lime Cupcake Graham cracker cupcake, key lime curd filling and cream cheese frosting

And many, many more.
http://www.citizencake.com/patisserie...

They also have a selection of kids cakes such as Hello Kitty ... hmmm.

The restaurant menu seems to have changed a lot as well. The online menu seems to be a sample summer menu and includes dishes such as
- Grilled NY steak with horseradish ice cream and tempura beets
- Betty’s pancake, a Dutch-souffle with summer fruit compote
- Jook with pork belly, black bean and scallion
- Carnitas hash, potatoes, tomatillo salsa and two poached eggs

Anyone been recently?

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Citizen Cake
399 Grove Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

[rworange]

Citizen Cake will be closing at the end of February and moving to the old Vivande location.
http://sf.eater.com/archives/2010/01/20/elizabeth_falkner_moving_citizen_cake_to_old_vivande_space.php

It sounds like it will just be a little cafe or patisserie

Given that, I created a new restaurant record for the new location since prior reviews won't apply. It sounds like more than just an address change.
http://www.chow.com/restaurants/91431...