Tout Sweet Opens In Macy's San Francisco
The polish on Yigit Pura's desserts is high
He's not just a pretty face.
The angelic-looking Yigit Pura, winner of Bravo's Top Chef Just Desserts in 2010, has finally opened Tout Sweet, his much-publicized shop on the third floor of Macy's.
It is clearly modeled after the high-end patisseries of Paris. (If Pierre Hermé can operate a boutique in the soigné Publicis Drugstore, why not?) While you can shop the women's collections from the cash register, the egg-shaped chairs next to the windows offer a rarely dwelled-on view over Union Square.
Most of the essential elements of Parisian boutiques can be found on the lipstick-bright shelves: the confitures and marshmallows, macarons and financiers.
What's also evident is that the gloss on Pura's pastries is already high. Those who love airy peaks of cream will find them precisely shaped in his photogenic pastries, and his butter croissant ($3) is quite fine.
We are struck most by his finessing of citrus flavors. The acidic charges of Meyer lemon and passionfruit curd in his Tesla tart ($6.50 for a miniature; $36 for a large) oscillate in vivid symphony. For his Florence verrine ($6), Pura crowns a glass of panna cotta, its texture as luxurious as softened butter, with a few tart grapefruit segments suspended in a subtly bitter Campari gelée.
It looks as good as it tastes, too.
Tout Sweet, third floor of Macy's, 170 O'Farrell St. (at Stockton St.); 415-385-1679 or toutsweetsf.com