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La Clochette brings croissants—and cassoulet—to Mission Valley
Whatever's going on with this bakery business, Civita Park residents get a decent meal
A different kind of fish sandwich: ahi tuna pastrami on a baguette. Served at La Clochette in Mission Valley.
Video:
FEAST!: La Clochette brings croissants—and cassoulet—to Mission Valley
I'd noticed the Pacific Beach cafe La Clochette had opened a Mission Valley location, but hadn't planned to visit. Good for Mission Valley, I thought, Everybody could use a good croissant. Even those who live in mall country.
But when I looked closer, I realized this isn't quite the same Le Clochette I was imagining, and there is ongoing messiness about its bakery. However, there was also an entirely different reason I wanted to check it out.
First thing: the La Clochette de Coin I visited in Pacific Beach two years ago has changed in that it's no longer cobranding with sensational croissant and pastry maker, Hommage Bake House. In fact, barely a week after I wrote about it, the Hommage brand announced it would be opening its own shop at Civita Park in Mission Valley.
The Civita Park café space occupied by La Clochette, not Hommage Bake House
Except it never happened. Instead, per Sandiegoville, Hommage was apparently caught up in the collapse earlier this year of crowdfunding platform MainVest, and by then it had already suspended baking operations within another brand cohabitation, with Lucky Bolt Bakery in Sorrento Valley. The three businesses appear to be intertwined, but little has been said about what happened with Hommage since its aspirational expansion announcements via Eater San Diego, and emergent conspiracy theories of people claiming to have been investors on Reddit suggest that story has yet to shake out, legally.
What's definitely true is that La Clochette is the brand that wound up opening a new shop at Civita Park in Mission Valley late this summer. And though it's still in the bread and pastry business, this café's more of an outlet for goods baked off site. Which means its kitchen can focus on making croissant breakfast sandwiches, like the Pacific Beach location of La Clochette (it's dropped the du Coin moniker, which requires being "on a street corner").
Thing is, I'm not paying attention to any of this because I like gossip. What I like is cassoulet. And in my experience, cassoulet is hard to find, whether I'm looking for it in San Diego, or whether I'm looking for it in Paris.
The French white bean stew, cassoulet, served with bacon, andouille sausage, and duck
Part of the problem is that it's not Parisian: Cassoulet hails from the southwest of France, where —as you might expect from what's essentially a baked bean casserole—it's a peasant dish. Fancy French restaurants strain to keep in on the menu because, classic though it may be, nobody goes to a fancy restaurant to order beans.
I enjoy it though, because a cassoulet's white bean stew (usually canneloni) is cooked in a seasoned chicken stock fortified with meats, usually pork, sausage, and duck. La Clochette's cassoulet, served only at its Mission Valley location, touts duck, andouille, and bacon ($17).
When I did finally track down a good cassoulet in Paris, it featured a duck leg, on the bone, and a slab of pork belly. So while I can't help being a little disappointed that La Clochette's version is a little more of a chunky soup, with little bits and occasional chunks of meat floating throughout, I'm otherwise thrilled. Because this cassoulet tastes just how I remember the French dish I enjoyed more than a decade ago. And I could eat it with a spoon (in Paris, I had to ask for a fork and knife).
Cassoulet eaten by the author in Paris 11 years ago
It was out of curiosity I decided to try one of the sandwiches offered exclusively at this La Clochette location: tuna pastrami on a baguette ($18). To my knowledge, tuna pastrami's no more a French thing than it is a Jewish deli thing. It could be taking inspiration from a pan bagnat, which likewise hails from southern France (Provence), but that sandwich usually includes cooked fish with hard boiled egg and green beans.
This one's built around cured ahi tuna, seasoned to invoke pastrami memories, and put on a baguette with arugula, tomatoes, and basil pesto. I'm as surprised as anyone that a good, crusty baguette makes a decent vessel for basically a crudo sandwich topping—and the pesto helps—but I found it to be a terrific sandwich.
Which is to say, being good at making food and being good at the business of making food aren't necessarily the same thing. Civita Park—north of Friar's Road in Mission Valley—is an odd place to seek out a good meal, but it worked out for me this week.
Here's something you might be interested in.
La Clochette brings croissants—and cassoulet—to Mission Valley
Whatever's going on with this bakery business, Civita Park residents get a decent meal
La Clochette brings croissants—and cassoulet—to Mission Valley
Whatever's going on with this bakery business, Civita Park residents get a decent meal
A different kind of fish sandwich: ahi tuna pastrami on a baguette. Served at La Clochette in Mission Valley.
Video:
FEAST!: La Clochette brings croissants—and cassoulet—to Mission Valley
I'd noticed the Pacific Beach cafe La Clochette had opened a Mission Valley location, but hadn't planned to visit. Good for Mission Valley, I thought, Everybody could use a good croissant. Even those who live in mall country.
But when I looked closer, I realized this isn't quite the same Le Clochette I was imagining, and there is ongoing messiness about its bakery. However, there was also an entirely different reason I wanted to check it out.
First thing: the La Clochette de Coin I visited in Pacific Beach two years ago has changed in that it's no longer cobranding with sensational croissant and pastry maker, Hommage Bake House. In fact, barely a week after I wrote about it, the Hommage brand announced it would be opening its own shop at Civita Park in Mission Valley.
The Civita Park café space occupied by La Clochette, not Hommage Bake House
Except it never happened. Instead, per Sandiegoville, Hommage was apparently caught up in the collapse earlier this year of crowdfunding platform MainVest, and by then it had already suspended baking operations within another brand cohabitation, with Lucky Bolt Bakery in Sorrento Valley. The three businesses appear to be intertwined, but little has been said about what happened with Hommage since its aspirational expansion announcements via Eater San Diego, and emergent conspiracy theories of people claiming to have been investors on Reddit suggest that story has yet to shake out, legally.
What's definitely true is that La Clochette is the brand that wound up opening a new shop at Civita Park in Mission Valley late this summer. And though it's still in the bread and pastry business, this café's more of an outlet for goods baked off site. Which means its kitchen can focus on making croissant breakfast sandwiches, like the Pacific Beach location of La Clochette (it's dropped the du Coin moniker, which requires being "on a street corner").
Thing is, I'm not paying attention to any of this because I like gossip. What I like is cassoulet. And in my experience, cassoulet is hard to find, whether I'm looking for it in San Diego, or whether I'm looking for it in Paris.
The French white bean stew, cassoulet, served with bacon, andouille sausage, and duck
Part of the problem is that it's not Parisian: Cassoulet hails from the southwest of France, where —as you might expect from what's essentially a baked bean casserole—it's a peasant dish. Fancy French restaurants strain to keep in on the menu because, classic though it may be, nobody goes to a fancy restaurant to order beans.
I enjoy it though, because a cassoulet's white bean stew (usually canneloni) is cooked in a seasoned chicken stock fortified with meats, usually pork, sausage, and duck. La Clochette's cassoulet, served only at its Mission Valley location, touts duck, andouille, and bacon ($17).
When I did finally track down a good cassoulet in Paris, it featured a duck leg, on the bone, and a slab of pork belly. So while I can't help being a little disappointed that La Clochette's version is a little more of a chunky soup, with little bits and occasional chunks of meat floating throughout, I'm otherwise thrilled. Because this cassoulet tastes just how I remember the French dish I enjoyed more than a decade ago. And I could eat it with a spoon (in Paris, I had to ask for a fork and knife).
Cassoulet eaten by the author in Paris 11 years ago
It was out of curiosity I decided to try one of the sandwiches offered exclusively at this La Clochette location: tuna pastrami on a baguette ($18). To my knowledge, tuna pastrami's no more a French thing than it is a Jewish deli thing. It could be taking inspiration from a pan bagnat, which likewise hails from southern France (Provence), but that sandwich usually includes cooked fish with hard boiled egg and green beans.
This one's built around cured ahi tuna, seasoned to invoke pastrami memories, and put on a baguette with arugula, tomatoes, and basil pesto. I'm as surprised as anyone that a good, crusty baguette makes a decent vessel for basically a crudo sandwich topping—and the pesto helps—but I found it to be a terrific sandwich.
Which is to say, being good at making food and being good at the business of making food aren't necessarily the same thing. Civita Park—north of Friar's Road in Mission Valley—is an odd place to seek out a good meal, but it worked out for me this week.