In the line at Tarts de Feybesse last week, a customer couldn’t make up their mind. They paused to deliberate over the multiple choices on display. It was as if they were stunned and dazzled by the array of eclairs, entremets and viennoiseries. Paul Feybesse patiently answered every one of their questions, explaining flavors and ingredients, while also sensing the tension increasing in the room. At one point, he subtly turned his head to the kitchen behind him to call out to Monique, his wife and business partner.
Until then, Monique had been hurrying back and forth from the ovens to the cooling racks. Another baker rolled out dough on a table. The bakery is designed like a stage. When a customer walks into the shop, they look directly into the kitchen through tall panes of glass. Responding to her husband’s call for moral support, Monique came forward to restock a shelf with a mango trompe l’oeil entremets. Watching her at work was a pleasant distraction. Her busyness was both performative and utilitarian. This call and response displayed the ease with which the couple acts as a team.
“Honestly, we grew up in high-pressure environments at some of the best restaurants in the world,” Monique said during a phone interview. Both she and her husband’s resumes include a long list of celebrated restaurants such as Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris, Atera in New York and Ninebark in Napa Valley.
“We know how to produce and how to perform in front of people,” she said. And they’ve come to think of their new space as an open restaurant. “We understand the flow of what a busy restaurant is supposed to be like.”
In October, Tarts de Feybesse opened its doors on the first floor of a brand-new building. There’s a slightly jarring juxtaposition between the traditional French pastries and breads for sale and the ultra-modern, marble-and-glass interiors. All of the baked goods look like they belong in a Parisian patisserie, but the shop itself belongs to a colder Kubrickian future. The bakery’s tagline—“Contemporary patisserie where tradition meets our era”—accounts for the disparity.
But Monique’s Filipino heritage also helps to define this mission statement and inform many of the menu’s most unique items. Financiers are laden with citrus or mango compotes. There are black sesame, mango and pistachio eclairs. Rhubarb tarts and calamansi napoleons shine jewel-like alongside more familiar chaussons aux pommes, pains suisse and slices of quiche.
Monique doesn’t consider Tarts de Feybesse a Filipino bakery per se. “We are using influences from there, which makes it very special for me,” she said. “It’s not just French cuisine—which I absolutely love, I’m a geek for it—but it’s coming back to my roots, showing Paul what it is, too, and him appreciating that and falling in love with that side of our family.”
Monique, a former Top Chef contestant, said that instead of putting ube in everything they’re using less well-known Filipino ingredients such as malunggay and pili nuts. “Pili nuts are so tender and have a lot of fat content,” she said.
“They’re delicious and good for you. I want people to fall in love with them naturally and organically, to normalize it without me saying, ‘This is Filipino,’” she continued. Malunggay, she added, has a grassy note to it. “We’ve used it the same way people use matcha in desserts.”
Three years ago Tarts de Feybesse operated out of a rented kitchen in Vallejo where the couple lives. During those semi-pandemic times, Paul drove around the Bay Area delivering their baked goods himself. Monique told me they looked for a brick-and-mortar location in several cities before they signed their Oakland lease. The build-out of the space took a year and half plus the time it took to secure city permits.
“We are not only thankful for Oakland but the East Bay in particular. They’ve just welcomed us with open arms,” Monique said. While there are many other great bakeries in the East Bay, Tarts de Feybesse, she believes, fills a very particular niche as a pastry shop. “We meet new people every single day, and they’re ready for something new.”
Tarts de Feybesse, 324 24th St., Oakland. Open Wed-Sat, 9am to 4:30pm and Sun, 9am to 3pm. IG: @tartsdefeybesse. tartsdefeybesse.com
