SFMOMA’s newest acquisition: A Jane the Bakery cafe

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Jane the Bakery might not generate the buzz and lines of, say, Tartine or Arsicault. But since 2011, when it opened on Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights, it has been steadily producing some of the city’s highest-quality breads and pastries. And now it’s expanding to a surprising location.

In late July, owner Amanda Michael is slated to open her seventh Jane location in the SFMOMA. The bakery and cafe will replace the restaurant Grace, which has been run by McCalls Catering. Michael says she’ll do a “light refresh” of the space and is working with the museum’s curatorial staff on the installation of a mural by a local artist. “It’ll just be a glow-up,” she said. “Isn’t that what they call it these days?”

Michael has been quietly growing the Jane brand (which, by the way, is named after her daughter) for a decade. She opened the Larkin Street location in the Tenderloin in 2013 and a Geary Street commissary and bakery four years later. During the pandemic, she took over Clement Street’s Toy Boat, saving the popular ice cream shop from demise. Then, in 2022, she purchased Tiburon’s Sweet Things Bakery and began using the San Rafael-based commissary kitchen for production, turning it into Jane/Marin. She also took over a counter in Cal-Mart in SF’s Laurel Village. 

The menu at the Jane outpost in the museum will reflect that of the Fillmore location, which is known for hearty and healthy salads, toasts topped with spring peas and green garbanzo mash, sandwiches like deviled egg salad and chicken banh mi, and Michael’s signature big cookies, such as salted white-chocolate oatmeal. Michael is hopeful that neighborhood residents will come in to eat as regularly as museum visitors.

“I’m excited to be in that area,” she said. “I love the art community here in SF.”