Snaps!

From Miette

Every year 7x7 Magazine compiles a carefully-curated, incredibly helpful, and only slightly ominous list: 100 Foods & Drinks to Try Before You Die. We are honored & flattered & jazzed to have our Gingersnaps make the list...for the second year!

From Miette

There are so many great recommendations on this list, you should totally check it out. Print it, laminate it, and have yourself a delicious time.....before you die, of course.

Gingersnaps
Availability: Ferry Building & Octavia
Price: $7/tub

Sweet Chestnut

From Miette

Detail of a photo by Frankie Frankeny


We flung open the door to our bright & bird-filled shop on Chestnut almost a year ago, and will be closing that door for the last time on Saturday evening, February 27th. We've had so much fun meeting our new neighbors & customers, & visitors from around the world who were drawn to the Marina by its breathtaking views & luxurious shops. Thank you for a lovely year!

We hope to see you all again soon, or someday, at our Ferry Building Patisserie & our Hayes Valley Confiserie.

Now, if there was only a way I could peel that gorgeous wallpaper off the walls & put it up in my apartment.....This sounds like a job for Lucy & Ethel Paperhangers!

Grapefruits: Not just an excuse to buy a super-specific spoon

Have you heard? It's grapefruit season! Happy grapefruit season! We're celebrating pretty seriously, with cakes & macarons & general enthusiasm. As usual.

The Grapefruit Cream cake you see above is soooooooo special. Our delicate vanilla sponge cake is moistened with simple syrup, topped with almond meringue (dacquoise!), a generous layer of grapefruit cream, and sweet Chantilly cream, and finally sprinkled with dacquoise dust. Don't you want to be sprinkled with dacquoise dust? The texture of this cake is quite unctuous- it somehow reminds me of tres leches cake!

Grapefruit Cream Cake Slice
Availability: Ferry Building Only, Slices Only
Price: $5

From Miette

And, they may look humble, but those little morsels pictured above are highly-anticipated, impossible-to-forget Grapefruit Macarons. Our true macaron love is probably the Pistachio, but every winter we have a Summer Lovin'-style fling with the irresistible Grapefruit. Tell me more!

Grapefruit Macarons
Availability: Ferry Building, Octavia
Price: $1.75/each

Other grapefruit excitement around town?
*Bar Tartine is serving the fantastic cure-all, the Sunny Honey: grapefruit juice, white wine, vermouth & honey.
*Bi-Rite is selling specially-bred Cocktail Grapefruits, for all your home mixologing.
*Humphrey Slocombe is scooping Pink Grapefruit Sorbet. That's the only one on this list I haven't tried, so I better scoot on over soon. I hear it's dangerously refreshing.
*ALSO!- Nopalito is mixing sparkling white wine with fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. Good enough to woo me away from my beloved Michelada!

Love Day 2010

From Miette

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day! I've never taken the v-day very seriously: it's fun & pretty but I never expect to receive anything, and don't always give anything.

From Miette

However, I love love love working on Valentine's Day. Everyone is at their absolute sweetest, picking out the perfect treat, gift box, & ribbon color for their valentine. If you received a little something from Miette this year, I want you to know how carefully & seriously your gift was selected, with consultation from shopgirls & much deliberation. It's the most adorable thing to witness, really.

From Miette

And it's not just lovey-dovey! Customers put together gifts for friends who were stuck at work all day, grandparents assembled bags of sweets for each of their grandchildren, little kids surreptitiously slipped me little handfuls of chocolates to wrap up for their parents (who were on hand to pay!). So much love I'm tearing up a little!

From Miette

One of the highlights this year was definitely the custom cookie decorating. Jeff (I'm just going to keep calling him our cookie genius) was on hand Friday at the Ferry Building Patisserie, and Saturday at the Hayes Valley Confiserie. Customers bought a cookie from a shopgirl, then entered a deep discussion with Jeff regarding color scheme, motif, and message. The messages, in several languages, were soooo lovely! He had a little extra time at the end so he whipped up the "Be Mine" & "Je T'aime" cookies that you see here. Let's look a little closer, shall we?

From Miette

Aaaaah. Thanks for being our valentine, San Francisco.

San Francisco, Je T'aime

From Miette

Have something important to say to your valentine?
~
Or something to say to someone in hopes of convincing them to be your valentine?
~
Have it written on a cookie: people pay attention to cookies.

Today only: custom inscribed 6-inch heart cookies!
Saturday February 13th
12noon - 3pm
Hayes Valley Confiserie

Food from the bottom of our Hearts

From Miette

On Friday February 12th, the San Francisco Ferry Building will be hosting the annual Food from the Heart event: it sounds pretty delicious. Super delicious.

From Miette

Miette is very excited to participate! We'll be staying open late, and from 5pm - 8pm our resident cookie-decorating genius Jeff will be on hand to make beautiful custom inscriptions on Miette our heart cookies. They are going to be quite grand in scale- 6 inches, and just gorgeous.

From Miette

As you can see!

We'll also be making, for the very first time!, tiny ice cream sandwiches! House-made creme fraiche ice cream will be generously layered between two of our miniature graham crackers. Yes, that's correct, it will be the cutest thing ever. There's no photo because we've never made them before- that's how special this event is! You should totally go, and bring that nice valentine of yours.

Custom Cookies*
Ferry Building Shop
Friday 2/12 5pm-8pm
$12

Tiny Ice Cream Sandwiches
Ferry Building Shop
Friday 2/12 5pm-8pm
2 Tickets

*Jeff will also be at our Hayes Valley Confiserie on Saturday 2/13, from 12pm-3pm. More about that later!

Haze of Love

From Miette

Miette Valentine's Day Date #1:
Grab your sweetie or your pals & pop into Miette Confiserie for made-to-order lemon verbena cotton candy! What could possibly be cuter/more obnoxious than strolling hand-in-hand, sharing a poofy white poof of cotton candy?! Not much.

Lemon Verbena Cotton Candy
Made with organic evaporated cane juice & Eatwell Farms lemon verbena oil
Price: $3.50 each
Availability: Octavia ONLY
Notes: Our cotton candy is all-natural & only lasts about 1/2 hour before deflating!

Let's Go Dutch

From Miette

You might think that crushin' on Diane, Anastasia, those Mast boys, and the cutie from Penelope would be all we could handle- but no. We have infinite capacity for crushes, especially this time of year. I'd like to introduce our two newest: Mara & Anna of Dutch Door Press.

From Miette

They hand-press their folk-modern cards & prints on an antique printing press, in a gorgeous Victorian house up in the Haight. And yes, they have a real Dutch Door. I've always, always wanted one, especially so my best friend can stop by for a good gossip, Lucy & Ethel-style. Mara & Anna- how often does that happen? Once a day? Oh, good. That's what I was hoping.

Dutch Door Cards (& of course, Valentines!)
Price: Full-Size $5, Note Cards $3, Enclosure $1.75
Availability: Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

Oh, you sugardaddy....

From Miette

All right! Steppin' it up a notch! If you want to shower your valentine with sweet candy goodness, it's amazing what you can get for less than $20. Don't be bullied into thinking that only $90 boxes of chocolates can express your love! It's the thought, and the awesomeness, that counts.
We've got your $20&Under Total Love Solution Gift Guide below!

Pictured above is the darling handmade box of handmade caramels from Diane of Maison Bouche. Twelve sweet, buttery, delicate caramels & a vintage cupid to deliver your heartfelt sentiment.
Maison Bouche Caramels $12
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

From Miette

Continuing the caramel theme, we present the world's most decadent, luxurious, completely ridiculous caramel sauce. We're also carrying Anastasia's caramels, of course, but Valentine's Day is the perfect time to buy something your valentine would probably never buy themselves. But they will be soooooo happy that you did.
Sweet Revolution Caramel Sauce $20
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

From Miette

Just look at that! What a charming box, all tied up with a sassy ribbon. Each elegant box contains 9 fantastic & creamy sea salt caramels covered in snappy dark chocolate. The quintessential Valentine's box of chocolates, in local, handmade form.
Au Coeur Dark Chocolate Caramels $20
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

From Miette

Last of the caramels, but definitely not least, are our very own Miette fleur de sel caramels! Soft & salty & full of Straus organic butter, this is a gift your valentine can nibble on all week. Maybe they'll even share- I'm sure your valentine is generous, & all-around wonderful.
Miette Caramels*
Gift Box $18, Single Caramel $1.50
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut
*We're also making chocolate fleur de sel caramel gift boxes!

From Miette

They don't fit in with our unintentional caramel theme, but we couldn't leave out the dragees! These vanilla candy coated almonds were one of the inspirations for our candyshop in Hayes Valley, and one of our all-time most popular items. We also have the classic multicolored variety, but thought the white ones were so lovely & pure- just like your valentine, I'm sure.
French Dragees
Gift Bag $12, or $35/lb
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

Cakes loving cakes!

From Miette

Once upon a time, two cakes fell in love. The Princess loved the Scharffen Berger's dark, mysterious nature, and the Scharffen Berger was delighted by the Princess' sweetness, delicacy, and gentle blush. Um...that's all I got. I'm sure they were very happy.

But check out those cute cakes! Perfect for a Valentine's Day who-needs-romance-we've-got-friends-&-movies party, or an intimate dessert with plenty of cake left over for breakfast in the morning. Call us, order a cake, and let the cakey romance wash over you.

Scharffen Berger Heart
Dark chocolate cake enveloped in two layers of dark chocolate ganache
6-inch: $30
Mini-Heart(not pictured): $5

Princess Heart
Vanilla cake soaked in St. George Raspberry Eau de Vie, raspberry jam, pastry cream, whipped Straus cream, pink fondant, & sparkly pink sugar!
6-inch: $35

For pick-up on February 14th, please place your order by 7pm on February 11th!

Heartstrings & Shoestrings

From Miette

We have to admit- we're total suckers for the fun, festive, silly romance of Valentine's Day. It doesn't have to be serious grown-up romance: pink & red & sparkly & heart-shaped is way more fun, and can be obtained on the cheap.
Presenting, our very first "$5 & Under" Valentine's Gift Guide!

It's just not Valentine's day without little chocolate hearts. Really, just one of these would make an adorable gift. Who could resist? Pictured above is $4.95-worth of milk, dark, and gianduja-filled hearts, if you feel like going all-out.

Gianduja Hearts $0.75
Ferry Building, Octavia

Milk & Dark Hearts $0.30
Octavia

From Miette

Red! Hot! Hearts! One of our favorite customers saw these & was like, "They still make these? I feel like I should send them a thank-you note!". Totally. They're teeny, hot, spicy, & classic. The bags in the photo are $3 for the larger, & $1 for the smaller. That's old-school value.

Red Hot Hearts, $1-$3

Octavia

From Miette

Shaun of Au Coeur makes perfect dark chocolate-covered caramels. Just perfect. They usually come in an elegant box of 9, but for Valentine's Day he's created these darling little boxes with 2 caramel hearts. Still elegant, still perfect, only $5.

Au Coeur Caramel Hearts $5
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

From Miette

We just got a fresh batch of jelly beans in, and the pinks & reds are out of control! Cotton candy, bubblegum, pomegranate, sour cherry, raspberry, strawberry cheesecake, & cinnamon are just some of your festively-hued options. We make $5 bags & $1 bags, shown above, but you can buy as much or as little as your heart (or sweetheart) desires.

Jelly Beans $10/lb
Octavia

The sunshine of your love

From Miette

{NOTE: more under $10 added below!}

Hi! There is so much to be excited about today: a rare, sunny January morning(What? It's February?!), and the first Valentine's Day gift guide! I love gift guides. It may sound crass, but I looooooove reading gift guides during the holidays. It's very soothing to look at all kinds of prettiness, with no plans of buying anything. The mulled wine helped, too.

We're kicking off the romance with our Under-$10 Super-Lovin' Miette Experience*!

First! A brand-new, perfect-for-Valentine's-Day chocolate bar from the lovely Diane of Maison Bouche! Milk & Dark chocolate bars are infused with rose oil, then she adds crystallized mint for a perfect zesty freshness.
Maison Bouche Bars: $6/bar
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

From Miette

If your Valentine isn't a floral flavor-lovin' type, but you'd still like to buy a pretty pretty bar of chocolate, look at Diane's other bars in all the pinks of your 11-year old dreams! From top, we've got Pink Pepper, Pink Grapefruit, and Crunchy Sables.
Maison Bouche Bars: $6/each
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

From Miette

When I was growing up, my dear grandma bought me a decorated, royal-iced cookie for every holiday. They weren't organic, and the colors were definitely artificial, but I loved them & would never want to face a holiday without one- & now I don't have to. Buy one for your valentine & one for your grandma!
Miette Cookies:$8
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

From Miette

There are very few places left to get a malt with your valentine, Archie&Betty&Veronica-style, but malt balls are pretty great, too. Here's one of our current gift bags!
Malt Ball Gift Bag: $7.50 (or $10/lb)
Octavia only (for now)

From Miette

Is this all a little too pink for you? We'll finish with more gorgeous bars from Maison Bouche- the Dame & Valet de Coeurs, or Lady & Gentleman of Hearts, from vintage French tarot cards. These bars are the Valentine's versions of Diane's popular Fleur de Sel bars in milk & dark chocolate. Fun fact: the Valets have been selling twice as fast as the Dames! Time to find more manly chocolates!
Fleur de Sel Chocolate Bars, $6/each
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

From Miette

Check out this beauty! Dark chocolate is molded into intricate floral panels, & filled with fresh minty cream. Unique, sparkly, & awesome. Flowers & chocolate in one!
Beaux Gateaux Flowers $10
Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

From Miette

I am a total sucker for the teenage French girl look of these hearts. So over-the-top, so fantastic. If you love someone passionately, or know that they love dark chocolate & gold-dusted-almonds passionately, this is the heart for you.
Michel Cluizel "Passion" Heart $10
Ferry Building, Octavia

From Miette

Another cutie from Michel Cluizel! Fantastic dark chocolate with an almond & hazelnut praline center. A little more restrained than the heart above, but still super-fun.
Michel Cluizel Praline Heart $6
Ferry Building, Octavia

Coming soon: Under-$5 Guide, Under-$20 guide, and lots more xxx&ooo.

*This is what happens when it's sunny in San Francisco in the winter: the "supers" & the exclamation points get out of control. I'm sure the fog will be rolling in soon, & everything will calm down.