Toy Boat Dessert Cafe reopens with baked goods from Jane
A new chapter begins this weekend for Toy Boat Dessert Cafe, the beloved San Francisco ice cream shop that’s been an endearing Richmond District landmark since 1982. After longtime owners Jesse and Roberta Fink decided to retire this spring, Jane the Bakery owner Amanda Michael purchased the business, and she’ll reopen the doors Saturday morning as Toy Boat by Jane.
Amanda Michael, new owner of Toy Boat Dessert Cafe, scoops a cup of mint chocolate chip ice cream at the beloved Richmond District staple.
Michael installed all new equipment, repainted the walls and “edited” down the collection of toys displayed around the shop’s perimeter, but she’s preserved the nostalgic, oldtimey vibe, and regulars will find it largely unchanged.
“We tried to keep the original flavor of the place,” she said. “But this is our take on it.”
Michael’s three Jane cafes in the city — Jane on Fillmore, Jane on Larkin
and Jane the Bakery on Geary — have developed a strong following over the last 10 years for items like her Crazy Cookie, made with marshmallows, chocolate chips, toffee and cereal, and her breads made with local grains. The new Toy Boat menu will still feature the same ice cream options as before, while incorporating Jane’s cookies, cakes, sandwiches, salads, bread and other baked goods, plus a togo refrigerator of specialty butters and cheeses.
Toy Boat was a regular stop for Michael when she was in high school in San Francisco. When her own kids were young, they loved it too. “We’d come here for ice cream and go to Green Apple afterward,” said Michael, referring to the nearby bookstore.
When the opportunity arose to buy the business, she wasn’t sure at first. Expansion, three months into the COVID19 shutdown, was the furthest thing from Michael’s mind. She’d lost a big chunk of her business with the dropoff in corporate catering.
But then she started to realize that the Toy Boat concept wasn’t that different from what she does at Jane — pastries, sandwiches, salads. She already had the infrastructue to produce them, and her staff could handle the extra work.
“The big departure is ice cream,” she said, and it seemed like a fun one. “I’m like a kid. I love ice cream.”
Michael is keeping the same ice cream purveyors as before — Double Rainbow and Mitchell’s, both also San
Francisco classics — but now all of the sauces and toppings will be homemade.
Most important to longtime fans, the shop’s famous mechanical horse remains — and kids will still be able to take a ride on it for 50 cents. To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, it will be thoroughly sanitized between rides. A small number of customers will be admitted inside the store at any given time.
Neighbors have already told her how excited they are to have Toy Boat back, Michael said. With most kids in San Francisco stuck at home doing distance learning right now, she figures they could use the pickmeup. It also feels good to be making a positive move among all the news of food businesses permanently closing throughout the city.
“I’ve realized it’s important to find some joy,” she said. “And I just figured maybe this is a way to get some joy back into our lives.”