The pastries on display at Parachute Bakery sit on individual pedestals. They look like pieces of edible art in an avant-garde gallery. A cube-shaped croissant’s center contains a luscious blast of passionfruit that’s paired with a white chocolate-vanilla crémeux. Chocolate croissants are baked in the shape of cylinders. A taller, muffin-shaped pastry is filled with a roasted-banana-and-pecan-praline cream. We all smiled after taking a bite out of it. The cross-laminated dough of the pain suisse holds not the traditional duo of chocolate and creme patissierre, but goat cheese, garlic and vegetables.
The space used to house Out the Door, the late Charles Phan’s casual takeout iteration of The Slanted Door. I used to eat there often and still miss eating the claypot chicken, served with a side of broken rice that soaked up the cilantro-laced sauce. With the Parachute redesign, the line is just as long but less chaotic. It’s now a single-file snake that curves in one direction, out the door. There’s also an interior cafe now which reduces the game of Ferry Building musical chairs by a small but helpful fraction.
Nasir Armar, Parachute’s executive pastry chef and co-owner, said he and his team took inspiration for the space from Japan’s embrace of architectural minimalism. “Personally, I feel overwhelmed when I walk into a bakery and there’s hundreds of pastries laid out in front of me,” he said. The pedestals also give customers a close-up view of the intricate details on each pastry.
Another visual stunner is Parachute’s signature chocolate entremet that’s decorated to look like a croissant. It’s made of chocolate cake layers, a chocolate crémeux and caramel. Covered in a Valrhona shell like the most decadent candy bar, this entremet should be shared with a small group of one’s closest friends. Armar is an adept stylist and, I’m happy to report, he doesn’t sacrifice substance to simply make everything pretty.
In 2021, Alex Hong, the chef and owner of Sorrel and a James Beard semifinalist, hired Armar to run the pastry and bread program at his San Francisco restaurant. Hong, along with Director of Operations Joel Wilkerson, later presented Armar with the opportunity to launch Parachute as its executive pastry chef and co-owner. It was an easy offer to accept. “I was always a big fan of Alex as a chef. He heavily inspired me with what he did at Sorrel,” Armar said.
Like Phan’s setup before them, the team has also taken over and redesigned the adjacent Slanted Door space. Hong is set to open Arquet at some point in October. The chef happened to be at Parachute when I stopped by. He told me the new restaurant will be, if not exactly casual, then accessible to a broader range of diners than Sorrel—which has earned a golden Michelin star—on Sacramento Street.
Armar always wanted to be a pastry chef. “Ever since day one,” he said. Which makes sense since his father ran a bakery. Born and raised in India, he told me that Girish Nayak, the chief mithaiwala—a person who makes or sells traditional Indian sweets—at Bombay Sweet Shop, also had a big influence on his career. But leading up to the Parachute opening, he undertook a rigorous training program with a couple of baker friends in Europe.
Laura Sciotti is the head pastry chef at Andersen & Maillard in Copenhagen. It, too, has a modernist take on pastry shapes. “Laura gave me a lot of knowledge,” he said. “Just working with her, getting to know the ins and outs of the bakery world and lamination techniques was very helpful.” Armar also called upon Gabriele Marziali who, until his recent move to New York, was making specialty croissants in Rome. Both of them advised Armar on how to run and manage a successful bakery.
Some of the pastries at Parachute combine those French techniques with American flavors and local ingredients. The “everything kouign-amann,” a flaky pastry, is filled with a scallion cream cheese mousse. Armar is also taking advantage of local California produce and showcasing it on the menu. He said the plan is “to change the menu every so often so it keeps people coming back.”
Parachute Bakery, 1 Ferry Building, STE 5, San Francisco. Open Wed-Sun, 8am to 4pm. parachutebakery.com. Instagram: @parachute.bakery
Sounds delicious, but why is the EAST BAY Express doing more and more articles about San Francisco, which is the West Bay? There is no dearth of East Bay folks to spotlight.