Dissect one of Marisa Williams’ pains au chocolat. When torn apart, the gossamer layers of pastry dough are so delicate the morning sunlight filters through them. An angel’s wings are made from a similar substance. Her tarts are more robust and also stately, the toppings changing with the seasons. This summer blackberries and blueberries formed dark glistening crowns on top of them. Now that it’s fall, Williams and her crew halved translucent, orange-tinged grapes to reveal their naked jellied interiors. But everyone in line clamors for the chef’s lush and deep rose-colored guava tarts.
Not wanting to dismiss anything she bakes, Williams did divulge a personal preference. “I definitely lean towards all the citrus and zingy tropical flavors,” she said. “This stuff makes you feel something when you eat it—it’s punchy, which I really enjoy.” Many of her recipes include citrus zest. “And I also make sure things are salted appropriately, which really helps drive the flavor.”
Williams started Sol Bakery as a pop-up when she returned to the Bay Area. “I was living in Europe for some time,” she said. “I helped open a bakery in Berlin, and that’s where I started working on this croissant recipe.” The formula is complex because Williams uses sourdough and a biga, which helps to enhance the flavor, texture and crumb of the croissant. “And there’s been many times where it just didn’t work,” she recalled.
Flour, though, is the key ingredient. Williams suspects that dry, characterless croissants are made with a strong, white flour and commercial yeast. “On one hand, it’s probably really reliable because you’re going to get a pretty consistent product,” she said. “But to me it just lacks a lot of flavor and depth.” Williams was already comfortable working with sourdough and extracting flavor from it. But she was very careful with the lamination process as well.
When Sol opened as a brick-and-mortar in Hayes Valley this spring, the bakery was only open to the public three days a week. Recently Williams expanded to four days—from Thursday to Sunday. There’s one table inside where customers can quickly devour their baked goods and coffees before ceding their chairs. The limited hours are directly related to the size of the kitchen. Williams said they’re producing double what she had anticipated.
Production runs Monday through Sunday even though Sol is only open four of those days. A lot of prep work goes into making the passionfruit curd and the chocolate ganache. Throughout the week, the bakers make all the tart shells. It takes four days to make the croissants.
Williams connects with many local food distributors for the ever-changing list of ingredients. Run by chief fruit officer Joyce Zhang, Fruit Queen sends out a newsletter with a list of products. “We get a delivery through Fruit Queen once a week, but I could have six different products coming from six different farms,” Williams said. Another similar distributor, Capay Valley Farm Shop, operates on a larger scale. “I’m able to get super-fresh things, and that definitely inspires the menu. The figs have been amazing so we’ve been putting them on the guava tart.”
When Williams returned from Europe, she worked as a pastry chef at Outerlands in the Sunset. After a few months there, she felt motivated to start her pop-up. The restaurant, which was closed on Mondays, supported her initial efforts which she described as both fun and overwhelming.
“I probably made way too many things,” she said. Planning for a pop-up requires a great deal of schlepping things from place to place. “I was doing it once a month because it was pretty hard to do that on top of working fulltime,” Williams added.
Within a few months she dropped her hours to focus all of her attention on Sol. Williams then began operating the pop-up out of Neighbor Bakehouse in Dogpatch. Quitting Outerlands was a major step—and also a scary one.
“I realized I would just have to live off these pop-ups,” she said. “But the owner of the bakery didn’t charge me rent the first few months, which was amazing.” By June of 2024, Sol was a weekly pop-up. Some days were quiet. “But I did have a lot of regulars,” Williams said. “And there’d always be someone new who walked in or wrote me a kind message to say they’d be back.”
Sol Bakery, 1696 Hayes St., San Francisco. Open Thu-Sun, 9am to 3pm. IG: @sol___bakery/
