Storefronts along the first block of Taylor are filling up fast. By the end of this year, it'll be a destination for not just burgers and cocktails, but also custom-designed cakes and specialty chocolates.
Longtime baker and chocolatier Tracy Wolf has signed a lease on a small vacant storefront at 39 Taylor and plans to open Cable Car Cakes and Chocolates in the space by the beginning of April.
Originally from Bay City, Michigan, Wolf studied culinary arts at Community College of San Francisco. After running a baking company in her hometown for many years, she and her husband moved back to the Bay Area, settling in San Leandro, where she spent the next 10 years baking and selling cakes and chocolates from home. Over the course of her career, she's created more than 100 wedding cakes and trained with the famous New York cake designer Colette Peters.
A wedding cake by Wolf. (Photo: Cable Car Cakes and Chocolate)
Ready to start a small shop once again, Wolf began hunting for retail spaces around the city, and landed in the Tenderloin where rents are still reasonable and the neighborhood seems to be "on the verge of something interesting," she said.
Her new location, a former pizza place, is beautiful inside and really spoke to her, she added. Once renovations are complete, it'll feel upscale yet welcoming to all. And its location right off Market Street, with 15-minute parking right outside, will make popping in and picking up an order seamless.
When it comes to her custom cakes, Wolf says her specialty is working with gum paste as well as crafting figurines that capture the spirit of whoever she's sculpting, whether that's an actual person or animal or a fictional character.
Her handmade chocolates — including salted caramels, truffles, and milk chocolate filled with peanut butter — are made with her own special recipes using ethically sourced ingredients and as much local, seasonal flavor as possible.
Salted caramels (Photo: Cable Car Cakes and Chocolate/Facebook)
In addition to filling custom cakes orders for special occasions and offering packaged boxes of chocolates, chocoholics living and working in the area will be pleased to hear that she'll have treats for drop-ins as well. Cake slices will sell for $5-$6 each, chocolates will go for $2 each, and samples will be offered generously, Wolf said (a boon for her future next-door neighbor, Studio Dental, no doubt).
To help her run the shop, Wolf plans to hire from the surrounding community and her alma mater, so keep an eye out for job opportunities as the shop comes together.
