The French Spot opens in Concord

On Saturday mornings the line starts to form at least 15 minutes before The French Spot opens. Happy families eagerly peer into the windows. They watch the bakers carry trays of pastries and bread from the oven to the front counter. There’s speculative talk about ordering the guava cream cheese danish and ube croissants. If Walnut Creek and Concord had the reputation for being “bakery deserts,” Vincent Attali and his wife Maria Zapata have quashed it with a sought-after oasis.

Attali and Zapata started The French Spot as a pop-up out of the pandemic before opening their first brick and mortar in San Francisco’s TenderNob neighborhood. But the couple live in the Martinez-Pleasant Hill area. They were looking to cut back on the commute and, Attali told me, “We wanted to invest in a local space so that we can contribute to the food scene here.” He added, “There are very few actual bakeries once you pass [through] the Caldecott Tunnel.”

It took four years of savings working out of the SF bakery before they were able to launch the second one in Concord. “That was almost a two-year project, from finding the right space and then getting all the people to help us put it together,” Attali said. “Building out a bakery is an expensive endeavor. My wife and I don’t have investors or partners—it’s just us.”

On a recent visit to the new shop, I was delighted to find out that great quiche crust isn’t an afterthought at The French Spot. Attali’s egg fillings are light and custardy, but the recipe he uses for the crusts makes them crisp and tasty. “We make large batches of pie shells in-house,” he said. “We use them for all our savory quiches and for our sweet pies.” I enthusiastically agreed with him when he noted, “It is a very nice flaky pie dough.”

Attali had more to add about the bakery’s laminated dough program. “Our mochi croissant is our signature croissant because it’s something that we came up with,” he said. Their homemade marzipan fills up every almond croissant. “There’s no bitter almond extract in it, which you’ll find in commercial almond paste,” he said. The kouign-amann, a caramelized croissant, is another popular item; it contains more butter than a croissant.

Zapata is from the Dominican Republic. In addition to making The French Spot’s murals and paintings, she also has previous experience working in hospitality. She brings some of her Latin influences to the menu with tropical flavors such as the guava cream cheese danish and a mango passionfruit croissant.

Because of The French Spot’s wholesale accounts, the bakery produces an enormous range of treats. Its six dozen types of croissants are all made with the same batch of dough. The dessert selection is more seasonal—pies for Thanksgiving and a bûche de Noël in December. But a customer’s special order can make it to the in-house menu for a trial run. Recently, the crew tried out tiramisu, carrot cake, chocolate mousse and creme brulée. For bread, there’s challah, milk bread, baguettes, sourdough loaves and ciabatta. Attali said they want to provide different options but, “Sometimes you have to know when to say, ‘OK, we have to stop.’”

Attali is a second-generation pastry chef. Born in Lyon, his father worked stints as an executive chef before running a wholesale bakery and cafe. When Attali fils started his career, baking was a side gig. His initial ideas about the industry changed in New York when he worked at Payard Pâtisserie, Restaurant Daniel and for Dominique Ansel, the inventor of the cronut. He began to see pastry-making as a form of artistry. But Attali and Zapata take a different approach to the all-consuming life of a full-time business.

The French Spot is open for breakfast and lunch, but not into the evening. Attali explained this approach—“We do get started in the middle of the night but we want to make it so that everyone has a better quality of life, for us and our employees.” Now that the couple has children they’d like to be home at night to have dinner as a family. “My wife and I have been all about bringing food and putting our time and energy and effort into this,” he said. “We want to share it with other people. This is why we do what we do.”

The French Spot, 785 Oak Grove Rd., Concord. Open Wed-Fri, 8:30am to 2pm; weekends 9am to 2pm. thefrenchspotsf.com