CONCORD, CALIFORNIA – When I asked the chef-owner of Concord’s much-anticipated French Spot bakery when his new location would open, his reply captured something lots of locals are feeling:
“Finally!”
Yes, that’s right. After long delays, a scheduled October opening date, and tons of construction, the French Spot (785 Oak Grove Rd Suite G-3) is finally ready to open its doors and serve you delicious pastries, coffee and cakes.
We have a confirmed opening date–and early ideas of the menu!
A summer opening that turned into a long wait
The road to opening has been a long one.
Back in the spring, the City of Concord shared that The French Spot was planning to open its first East Bay outpost in August, in the same Oak Grove Plaza center that’s home to Boichik Bagels and TJs.
By April, Bay Area Telegraph readers had already spotted early signage and we reported that the new bakery would bring The French Spot’s highly inventive croissants — including ube- and mochi-inspired creations (on which more below)– plus pies, sandwiches, and more to the suburbs.
In September, I poked my head in the door and met chef-owner Vincent Attali. He told me he was then hoping for an October opening, or at least to be up and running before the winter holidays. Construction was still underway, including installation of a massive oven and a glassed-in, extra-cold pastry room to handle all that butter-rich dough.
More recently, the bakery’s website said the Concord shop would open “later this November” once the city signed off on inspections, and even offered Thanksgiving preorder pickups from the future Oak Grove Plaza space — a sign that the team was already baking for East Bay customers behind the scenes.
Soft opening time: what we know
Now, the wait really is almost over.
In a recent Instagram update, The French Spot told followers, “At long last Concord, The French Spot will be opening its doors this Saturday at 9am” for a soft grand opening, explaining that final approval had just come through and that they were hustling to get ready.
Soft openings typically mean a limited menu, shorter hours, or smaller batches as a new restaurant works out the kinks. Given how long fans have been waiting — and how popular The French Spot already is in San Francisco — it would be smart to expect lines, early sell-outs of certain pastries, and a bit of opening-week chaos.
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What is The French Spot, exactly?
For those who have not made the trek to the city, The French Spot is a small, family-owned pastry shop on Larkin Street in San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood.
Owners Vincent Attali and Maria Zapata describe the business as a French-American-Asian inspired pastry shop. The menu mixes traditional French techniques with playful flavors, offering breakfast pastries, desserts, and custom cakes.
Attali is a second-generation pastry chef with deep fine-dining credentials, including stints at three-Michelin-star restaurants like Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas and Daniel in New York, as well as high-end pastry shops and luxury hotels
Zapata is an artist and cake designer whose work brings a bold, graphic style to the shop’s cakes. She also apparently painted a big mural inside–we can’t wait to see it!
The bakery has become known in the Bay Area for its Ube Mochicro — a mochi-texture croissant with a vivid purple ube glaze — along with kouign amann, pain au chocolat, almond croissants, and other traditional viennoiserie.
What the Concord bakery will look and feel like
When we toured (okay, quickly glanced at) the still-under-construction Concord space earlier this year, the bakery layout already hinted at how seriously The French Spot takes pastries.
In the back, workers were installing a huge oven to handle breads and pastries baked on site. A dedicated, glassed-in pastry room was being built to stay extra cold — crucial for laminating croissant dough without melting all that butter.
Attali told Bay Area Telegraph he expects the Concord shop to carry many of the same items that made the San Francisco location famous, but with even more emphasis on breads and larger-format loaves coming out of that new oven.
About the opening, Vincent told us: “Finally! Opening Saturday, 12.6, 9am. Grand opening…Â Only have two days to prepare!”
Good luck! We can’t wait to visit.
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