Your Guide To San Francisco's Amazing New Pastry Shops

San Francisco has truly entered the Gilded Age–if by gilded we're referring to the golden sheen of buttery pastries.

We're not just talking about explosion of pastry shops in this city, but their soaring quality as well.

What happened? Blame it on restaurants, perhaps, for keeping fewer pastry chefs on staff. Many of the city's best sugar-workers have gone rogue, opening their own patisseries. You're no longer limited to eating their sweets after a big dinner.

Behold: Tasting Table's guide to the best of the city's new shops, with more on the way. Use our Need to Know map to plot your own demerara-dusted expeditions.