Hearth: Pairing coffee with pastry
[...] that’s what Ariana Akbar did before she opened Hearth Coffee Roasters in the Castro neighborhood with her husband, James Kafader; the couple previously owned Brown Owl Coffee on Taraval Street.
Instead of a wine-focused cafe, Akbar wanted to use her training to pair the organic single-origin coffees she and Kafader roast with bites from pastry chef Megan Bovis.
When Hearth opened last fall, the couple were roasting an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe with blueberry and chocolate notes, so Bovis baked blueberry chocolate ganache brownie bites to go with it.
Starting, Friday, May 15, the cafe will offer coffee and food flights on weekends, featuring small servings of three seasonal single-origin coffees and three bites.
Because the roasters change their coffees seasonally, Bovis has a lot to work with.
The pastry chef previously worked at Thorough Bread and Pastry in San Francisco and Fournée Bakery in Berkeley.
In a macchiato it goes especially well with the almond-orange blossom croissants — day-old butter croissants that Bovis soaks in simple syrup and fills with almond cream, with a few drops of orange blossom essential oil.
When they’re not offering the flights, baristas usually serve one single-origin coffee every day, either from an air pot (and brewed in a French press), if you’re in a hurry, or via pour-over, if you can wait.