La Boulange

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

Une croissant

Deux pain au chocolat

And a…….STOP! It isn’t Christmas, there are no pear trees …………

Ah but a little bit of France , however, has landed in Marin. La Boulange . In fact, two of Pascal Rigo’s bakery cafes are now located in the county. One at: the Strawberry Shopping Center in Mill Valley and the newest, in Novato’s Hamilton Market Place.

With their distinctive orange awnings and sky blue doors these two café welcome customers not only with their breads and pastries but also with salads, soups, sandwiches and coffee... Salads are served with the bakery’s organic bread and range from Beet, served with goat cheese, orange sections, candied pecans and greens, Nicoise, with tuna, potatoes, green beans, tomato, olives, roasted red peppers, sliced egg , aioli and greens. Getting hungry yet? The sandwiches both open face and regular are served with greens or homemade chips and include smoked salmon, flank steak, and goat cheese with portobello mushroom, roasted red peppers and pesto. They also make a wild mushroom mac and cheese with truffle oil. Looking at their menu, there is something for everyone. It’s no wonder that this casual dining experience is packing them in.

Pascal Rigo was born in Bordeaux and began an apprenticeship in baking when he was seven. After becoming a professional baker he attended the University of Bordeaux and graduated in business. This combination led him eventually to the United States where he first opened a bakery in Los Angeles. Luckily for us he decided to make the bay area his home. base.

He started by opening restaurants but soon returned to his roots. He bought the oldest flour mill in San Francisco that produces the organic flour used in all of the baking. All of his production managers own part of the business and the business has flourished. Freshly baked good are delivered daily and from my experience you had better get there early! Pascal, at first was not going to expand outside of San Francisco, but Marin called and now we have two boulangeries that we can enjoy.

Now let’s see, where was I ? Oh yes, I was at deux pain au chocolat, maybe I’ll save room for trois chocolat fondue…..hey they’re small! Directions

Wild Flour Bread, Freestone CA

“If you build it, they will come", so said Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams. Baseball in a corn field, impossible? Well not in the movie. In real life, Jed Wallach dreamed of building a wood fired brick oven bread bakery in the rolling hills of west Sonoma , and build it he did. Located 10 miles from Sebastopol California, Wild Flour Bread is located in Freestone a tiny village of 26 scattered houses , and as they say, “the view from the windows looks out to fields, barns and often a herd of cows.” It should be impossible to have a business so far from town, especially a bakery where it is vital to move the product as soon as possible, but just like in the “Field of Dreams” it works. The bakery has been a success from the start and just celebrated its 11th year of operation.

Wild Flour has been featured on CNN and bakes organic sourdough breads, scones and biscotti. When we say sour dough it does not mean that the bread tastes sour like San Francisco sour dough French bread, rather they ferment flour and water and use this as the levain. Even for their sweet breads. All the bread is baked in a wood fired brick oven. Every afternoon a wheelbarrow of eucalyptus is added to the oven, which turns to ash by 4 a.m. The heat is maintained at 350 and bakes the most amazing hard crunchy crust that customers know and love. When not open, they heat the oven to 1200 degrees which keeps the oven hot until they begin to bake again.

Open only four days a week, because as Jed says, there is a whole world out there to know and explore, the bakery opens with four breads. Sticky buns, cheese fougasse, goat flatbread and whipping cream scones with flavors like double chocolate, espresso, apricot and hazelnut. So good, we don’t know which to pick first, happily they give out samples. By 10:30 the rest of their breads are baked , and out of the oven. There are always at least 10 different kinds .How many loaves do they bake each day? How about nine hundred loaves daily and they are sold only in the bakery.! Unbelievable! When we first heard about Wild flour we had to take a drive out just to see if it really was as fantastic as we had heard. It is. The lines out the doors tell you that. Piles of breads, different shapes and sizes greet you as you enter . Just beyond the baked goods the bakers are rolling out dough, working the ovens and the aroma of freshly baked bread is irresistible. A wonderful experience for children to see a real working bakery. Out in back there is an organic garden with vegetables and flowers a perfect place to roam with a cup of coffee and freshly baked bread.

Wild Flour is open, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday- 8:30 to 6:00pm

OXBOW Public Market, Napa CA

Farmer’s Markets flourish in Marin and Sonoma counties. They're fun, with food and music and your pick of the best in organic produce. You find them in malls, parking lots and on the main streets of small towns. So when we heard about the new public market in the Oxbow district of Napa, we had to go. Napa is a town that can be easily bypassed as you drive to St Helena or Calistoga, the heart of the wine county, but driving to the market through downtown Napa is a delight. Beautiful turn of the century homes and buildings are matched with riverfront condos and lofts.

To get there take the First Street exit off of Highway 29 and follow the signs. As soon as you spot the The Napa Valley Wine Train at Soscol Avenue you know you're getting close, in fact the market is in walking distance of the train. The market is located on a bend of the Napa River, beautiful! The building, unlike the downtown area, is modern with lots of corrugated sheet metal and little to no landscaping to soften its lines. Our first mistake was to think this was a farmers market. Inside the building are various vendors including food stands with only one organic produce market. The farmers market starts in May and goes through the middle of September and is held across the street every Tuesday and Saturday. Inside the building there are multiple mini stores including a meat market, and an olive oil purveyor, Hog Island Oysters, Three Twins ice cream and Rotisario.

We think food is the key here.Pica Pica a Venezuelan food stand specializes in Arepas , which is a grilled corn flatbread much like a pita. They are hot and crispy, split and filled with various yummy fillings. Ours was the Pabellon, with shredded skirt steak, fried plantains and black bean paste. With that we had a frosty glass of frozen coconut lemonade, much like a slushy and slightly tart. Worth the trip.

In an adjacent building you’ll find Taylor's Automatic Refresher the all American hamburger restaurant - one of three in the bay area. Lest you think that the food is ordinary the line around the building will tell you otherwise. Real milkshakes, perfect hamburgers, ahi tuna burgers and sweet potato fries just name a few of their offerings. Not to be missed.
Next door is Model Bakery.Great breads, sandwiches and fresh baked pizza, but we finished off our Pica Pica lunch with cookies. Big and round with crunchy edges and chewy centers. You have got to try the chocolate chip walnut cookies and almond macaroons.

All in all the market is a great place to eat and a beautiful drive, but as a destination in itself I think it is better as part of a day’s excursion to wine county. We are going to go back when the farmer’s market is up and running and will post an update. Thanks for reading.