San Francisco Street Bakery

Where: 1320 San Francisco Ave. N.E., Olympia, 360.753.8553

Hours: 6:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday

Cuisine: Sandwiches, soup, quiche, baked goods, pastries, desserts, granola

Scene: Casual and family friendly order-at-the-counter, carry-out or dine-in coffee shop/deli. Full-service bakery

Drinkies: Canned fancy soda, bottled sparkling water, coffee, espresso, hot and cold tea

Prices: $1.50-$6.25

ANNOUNCER: A full-fledged working bakery as well as coffee and sandwich shop, San Francisco Street Bakery is a comfortable dual purpose establishment that celebrated its 20th anniversary in April 2009. Tucked into a northeast Olympia neighborhood, efficient staff prepare items with care as everything is made by hand and mostly to order. Mouthwatering desserts and tempting pastries fill lighted glass cases. Outdoor seating makes one yearn for spring. Open only until 7 p.m., the bakery offers a casual place to nibble a cookie and read the paper, grab a coffee to go, nosh a sandwich with a friend or duck in for a quick loaf of healthy bread for the house. Bakery items are sold at area businesses as well.

JAKE: Did you see the old register? That's how you know the place is legit.  I didn't even mind ordering at the counter, and I wanted to bottle the smell of all that good stuff baking. Welcome to Hippieville, right?

JASON: Yawn. Just because people wear hemp clothing and bake bread from scratch does not make them hippies. It means they're smart and know why making things from whole, unprocessed ingredients is better. Tell me your soup was not awesome. I dare you.

JAKE: The soup was not awesome. There, I said it. Not awesome. Now that doesn't mean it wasn't good; it was. It just seemed bland to me. I couldn't taste curry anywhere in the curry lentil soup, and that irked me. I was ready for some curry lovin' and was denied. I'd add onion salt and some garlic to the rust-colored lentil, carrot and celery. A toasted cheese bagel as accompaniment proved a good dunking device.

JASON: You'd add onion salt and garlic to cheesecake if your wife didn't stop you. Pizza shaped focaccia slices covered in feta cheese and tomato were seriously tempting. Olive sourdough called to me though, so I chose items from the build your own list for sandwich making. Mildly sweet ham, provolone, crisp lettuce, tomato, and cucumber were held between two slices smeared with stone ground mustard. I needed a little more food than soup and sandwich after my exhausting day, and thus added a 3-inch round bacon quiche. Mild in bacon flavor and quite eggy, it had a very lightly baked crust. Personally, I liked the spinach quiche more. A nicely browned, flakey crust enveloped moist egg and spinach. Moist being the important part since San Fran Street doesn't have sour cream, and quiche can be dry.

JAKE: You nailed it on the quiche, so I'll move on. I expected rosemary bread to have bits of green in it, but this bread was pure white. It smelled of rosemary, so I guess it was infused with it though I could hardly discern the taste. I basically had the same sandwich as Jason, except I swapped cucumbers for red bell peppers and had turkey instead of ham. The build-your-own sandwich for $6.25 was modest in size and appropriate for eating in conjunction with a cup or bowl of soup for lunch. Adding the small quiche rounded it out for dinner perfectly and still left room for a spot of dessert.

JASON: Ah dessert, my favorite part of the day - besides yoga class that is. The pastry case sits like a really hot woman in a tight skirt across a room.  Sheepishly, you find your gaze returning repeatedly. Cheesecake, fruit pie, macaroons, snickerdoodles, éclairs, mousse cake, chocolate caramel bars, shortbread, tarts, Danish, scones, pound cake, muffins, brownies. I get breathless. I opted for a sweet ricotta, chocolate chip and orange filled cannoli. Stripes of chocolate painted the outside. Pure heaven.

JAKE: For once I'm with you on the display case attraction. A dense flourless cake made even heavier with espresso is what made my heart race, and I don't think it was the caffeine. Bam! So rich, so good. 

JASON: We should give our wives a day to themselves for Valentine's and bring the kids here for gingerbread man cookies. That's a good excuse to sneak dessert for lunch ourselves. That would score big points, right?

JAKE: Maybe even redeem you for drinking the "special occasion" wine without her.