The library can be a place of refuge, a temporary retreat from life’s stressors or a gateway to Libby, the audiobook app of my dreams. Sadly, Libby still doesn’t offer instant access to pastries. But the San Leandro Public Library now hosts the As Kneaded Café under its roof.
Iliana Berkowitz’s San Leandro bakery opened a second location in the library on Saturday, Feb. 14. This time with a refurbished espresso machine along with the pastries, sandwiches and viennoiserie that have appeared at Bay Area farmers’ markets for the past decade.
Berkowitz described the expansion as a wonderful opportunity to extend the person-to-person service and hospitality that As Kneaded Bakery is known for.
“Now people can come to the library and enter my side door before the library opens,” she said. “They can sit down, have a lavender latte, get a fresh-baked croissant from the bakery, or they can come for lunch and have quiche and a salad, or one of our Parisian sandwiches.”
Pre-library opening, I dropped by As Kneaded Bakery for the first time this month. I was lured in by a photo of those Parisian sandwiches. That day I chose the tuna on baguette over the vegetarian chickpea.
I once ordered a tuna sandwich in Paris. It was served not on a baguette but on a huge round bun that was closer to, but not exactly, brioche. The fish was brined in olive oil and paired with olives. I’d never tasted anything so briny and salty, and so clearly influenced by Mediterranean flavors. As Kneaded’s very American tuna salad sandwich is much less potent, but still comforting and familiar.
The library cafe will provide Berkowitz and her team with a first-time opportunity to have a full espresso bar. The bakery headquarters on Victoria Court simply doesn’t have room for a coffee program. “To be able to make as many baked goods as we do, you need a lot of physical space to work,” she said. Fifty-pound bags of flour take up a lot of space. All of the cooking and baking will remain at the original location.
“I want to situate us to make sure we’re up and running before we expand in any particular direction,” Berkowitz said. “And, of course, to see what the community is vibing with.”
Another fun feature of the San Leandro location is the “pay it forward option” where customers can choose to purchase a drink to be enjoyed by a later patron.
In 2016 while working full-time at another bakery, Berkowitz launched As Kneaded to make and sell her own bread. “I was in my mid to late 20s, without having a family,” she recalled. “I was feeling empowered by the support and early success I had seen with my bread club.” While living in San Leandro, Berkowitz commuted to a commercial kitchen in San Mateo.
“There’s a rentable bread oven there. It’s the only one of its kind in the Bay Area,” she said. Other commercial kitchens, she said, couldn’t accommodate the production of “thick-crusted, stream-injected bread at high volume.”
As Kneaded Bakery initially sold bread at the College of San Mateo’s Farmers’ Market, and continues to do so. “That’s been a throughline from February 2017,” she said. “Then we did wholesale, so I would deliver bread to different small markets.” She then began the search for her own space.
In 2018 she opened the bakery after someone mentioned the space was available to rent.
“It’s tucked away in the Broadmoor neighborhood, and I couldn’t have chosen a better place,” she said. “In San Leandro, I can be a big fish in a small pond.”
Berkowitz also noted that San Leandro is “hungry and ready” for more food options. “I implore people who own food businesses to try coming here,” she said. “It’s not potentially as sexy as Oakland, but people are so excited for the cafe and about any new business that comes to our area.”
She added that the San Leandro Business Development Center offers incentives for business owners, saying: “Maybe one day I’ll open a third one. We’ll have to see how this one goes first.”
As Kneaded Café, hours Mon: 9am – 5pm, Tues-Thurs: 9am -7pm, Fri-Sat: 9am – 5pm, Sun: closed. San Leandro Main Library, 300 Estudillo Ave., San Leandro. askneadedcafe.com, IG: @as.kneaded.cafe.
