Maison Danel Turns Polk Street Into Rue Polk

BY TAMARA PALMER

Ready or not, San Francisco’s Polk Street now has an upscale French patisserie and salon de thé with Maison Danel, which opens on February 18 from Baker Street Bistro owners Danel and David de Betelu. Their dream space took three years to realize and is large enough to linger in for breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea or grab some pastries on the go.

I’m appreciative to have been invited to Danel and David’s intimate preview last week, which was a bit of a dream sequence of pointing to items in the case and getting to try a little bit of everything. I’ll be putting Maison Danel into my afternoon tea rotation immediately.

The bags say “rue Polk” and “Californie,” très charmante

Afternoon tea setup — optional caviar and Champagne not shown

Smoked salmon croissant sandwiches

Glazed lemon Madeleines

Chocolate yuzu macarons

Chocolate ganache, chocolate crispies and raspberry jam

Apricot oreillettes and chocolate hazelnut croissants

Rice pudding with lemon zest

Chocolate yuzu macaron and torsade au chocolat (my favorite)

Maison Danel, 1030 Polk Street, San Francisco