Comeback for Chantal Guillon’s popular macarons
Just months after Bay Area baker Chantal Guillon retired and bid a heartfelt “au revoir” to customers, her macaron business is back.
French pastry chef Patrick Lassaque and his manager wife, Lubna, who met while working at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, have purchased the company and relocated to the Bay Area.
“Chantal had lots of offers but always knew that we wanted to continue this journey and insisted on keeping her name and recipes,” Lubna told the Bay Area News Group. “So here we were, selling everything in Vegas to fulfill our final desire, to be business owners.”
Guillon burst onto the San Francisco dessert scene in 2008 and four years later established a shop in Palo Alto.
She wrote to customers that she has every confidence in the Lassaques, noting “their desire to continue Chantal Guillon’s legacy, baking your favorite macarons, using the same recipes, same quality ingredients, same ‘savoir-faire’ and passion with the same team that worked all those years along with me.”
Favorite flavors that have returned include salted caramel, red velvet, creme brulee, Earl Grey, raspberry lychee, lavender black currant, passion fruit, Italian pistachio, Tahitian vanilla, Persian rose and chocolate.
Both Lassaques bring years of international experience to the venture. He has been a pastry chef in Paris, Nice, Marseilles, St. Tropez, St. Barts and London, and also worked with chefs Alain Ducasse and Mark Ehrler in Monaco and Cancun. She was in hotel management roles with Sheraton in Dubai, Starwood and Mandarin Oriental in Boston and Kimpton in both Boston and New York be
fore landing at Wynn and Bellagio Las Vegas.
DETAILS >> Open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-sunday at 444 University Ave., Palo Alto, and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday at 1309 Howard St., San Francisco. www.chantal guillon.com
Veggie Grill spinoff Standup Burgers opens in Berkeley
To match the increasing demand for plant-based eats, the team behind Veggie Grill is opening its first burger-only restaurant.
Stand-up Burger in Berkeley is the Los Angeles-based company’s first foray into serious stacked burgers, fries and shakes. Impossible Burger patties and brioche buns are the base for seven burgers starting at $8.50 and including the chilicheese burger, the O.G. with Miyoko’s cheddar, Tex-mex burger with spicy queso sauce and the signature double decker Standup Burger. A portion of sales from that burger will go to the Berkeley Humane Society.
The menu will also feature the Freebird, a plant-based crispy “chickin” sandwich with Buffalo sauce, and the falafel wrap, green chickpea falafel with roasted peppers, tzatziki, arugula, cucumber, tomato and tahini hot sauce wrapped in a spinach tortilla. Don’t skip the Save the Animals-style Fries topped with grilled onions and secret sauce.
Stand-up Burgers is the second food concept that Veggie Grill has opened this year to address consumer demand for plant-based options. In January, the company launched Más Veggies Taqueria, a virtual Mexican restaurant, offering all plantbased food for delivery in Southern California.
‘Next generation’ of Dunkin’ opens shop in Sunnyvale
Another “next generation” Dunkin’ Donuts has arrived in the Bay Area.
The new Sunnyvale shop — called simply Dunkin’ — showcases
the brand’s sleek new design and modern concepts, with a fireplace-and-tv lounge for post-pandemic sipping and snacking and taps dispensing nitro cold brew coffee and iced tea.
This El Camino Real location also features digital kiosks for fast in-person ordering and a designated area where DD Perks members can pick up mobile-app orders, according to franchisee Ray Reale. Customers can track the status of their orders on a new digital board.
And yes, Reale says, customers will see one piece of sports memorabilia — a San Jose Sharks hockey stick — displayed prominently on the fireplace wall. “Being from Connecticut, we unfortunately don’t have an NHL club. I could not resist the opportunity to finally have a team of my own to cheer for. I will make it a staple in all my locations to represent the Sharks,” he said.
There are now 12 Dunkin’ and Dunkin’ Donut shops in the Bay
Area. Coming soon: A new location in South San Jose at Almaden Expressway and Foxworthy Avenue, along with shops in Santa Rosa and Suisun City.
DETAILS >> The new Sunnyvale Dunkin’ is open from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily at 852 E. El Camino Real. www.dunkindonuts.com
Rooted Coffee moving into old Walnut Creek coffee shop
There’s some exciting news brewing on the downtown Walnut Creek coffee scene.
Rooted Coffee Co., the familyowned Pleasant Hill shop known for its vegan food and organic, fair trade coffee, is opening its second location at 1321 Locust St., in the corner spot formerly housing Coffee Shop.
According to Rooted’s website, you’ll have to wait until summer to partake of its Vallejo-roasted coffee beans and wide variety of lattes, including matcha, vanilla mint, golden milk, lavender, cardamom maple and harvest latte, which is made with house-made orange syrup.
The Pleasant Hill food menu is plant-based and includes the popular house-made waffles, avocado toast with house-made cashew cream cheese, mixed berry yogurt and coffee mousse parfaits, and smashed chickpea salad.
Coffee Shop permanently closed the Locust Street location back in February, with a sign in the window saying you can find them in the near future at 1470 N. Broadway, which is the location of Mexican restaurant Maria Maria.
An Instagram post that has since been taken down announced a soon-to-open collaboration with Maria Maria. According to Diablo Dish, Coffee Shop will be a morning pop-up with the same menu as the Lafayette Coffee Shop; Maria Maria will be on deck in the afternoons and evenings.
Philz Coffee coming to San Jose’s Willow Glen
The rumors have been percolating for a couple of years, but now it’s official: Third-wave Philz Coffee is opening a shop in San Jose’s Willow Glen.
The Bay Area coffee roaster and pour-over specialist is moving into the Lincoln Avenue space vacated when the Athletic Performance (now Athletic Treads) running store moved a few doors down.
“We’re currently well under construction on this location and are shooting for a mid- to late May opening if everything stays on schedule,” a Philz marketing representative said.
The addition will give Lincoln Avenue a strong jolt of java: There’s a Peet’s across the street and a Starbucks at the other end of the avenue.
This will be the second Philz for San Jose; the first opened several years ago on downtown’s Paseo de San Antonio near San Jose State University. The South Bay/peninsula region is now home to a number of Philz, including shops in Campbell, Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Los Gatos.