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For Jade Wang, croissants are a vehicle for creativity. Layers of flaky, buttery pastry are stuffed with flavors such as chicken floss and seaweed, Dubai chocolate, cotton candy grape and cream or even teriyaki chicken sausage.
Wang has been running her wildly inventive San Francisco bakery pop-up Tiny Croissanterie since 2024, operating out of trendy cafes such as Paper Son Coffee and Shoji. Now, she’s opening her first brick-and-mortar bakery later this month, taking over the former Hanabusa Cafe space in Sunnyvale. Not only will Tiny Croissanterie’s brick and mortar showcase signature bakes, but it will also have a robust coffee program and lunch offerings.
Wang, who also owns HeyTea Milpitas, worked in the finance industry for five years before reevaluating her career aspirations. She thought about the delicious Taiwanese bread she ate growing up in China with an aunt who owned a neighborhood bakery, and she decided to enroll at the San Francisco Baking Institute in South San Francisco to learn viennoiserie (a category of baked goods that includes croissants) and bread.
“In the viennoiserie world, oftentimes we think it’s always something sweet,” Wang said. “And in my background, in my culture, we don’t really eat a lot of sweet stuff in the morning.”
She wanted to create more savory pastries featuring the Asian flavors she grew up with, and the idea for Tiny Croissanterie was born. One of her signature bakes is her chicken floss and seaweed croissant, inspired by Taiwanese pork floss buns.
Other savory bakes she’s made include a yuzu ham and cheese pain suisse with Gruyere cheese, Black Forest ham and yuzu jam, a scallion pain suisse and a maple bacon swirl. Her scallion cronigiri, a croissant meets onigiri concept, made with scallion-infused butter and filled with scallion mornay sauce and sesame oil, is a reimagination of a Chinese scallion pancake.
In addition to savory viennoiserie, Tiny Croissanterie has a variety of sweet options, including Wang’s Dubai chocolate croissant, made with activated charcoal, filled with butter-toasted kataifi and homemade pistachio spread, coated in a crispy chocolate shell and topped with more kataifi and pistachios.
And it’s not just viennoiserie at Tiny Croisanterie – there’s also a selection of cinnamon rolls in flavors such as matcha black sesame or Biscoff, as well as Macau egg tarts with black sesame or seasonal fruit jam. Also known as po tat, Macau egg tarts differ from Hong Kong-style egg tarts because its crust is made with puff pastry dough instead of cookie dough, and the filling is creamier and less eggy, Wang explained.
Since 2025, Irene Takashima has been Tiny Croissanterie’s head of pastry, helping Wang develop and improve recipes. Takashima previously worked at notable bakeries such as Devil’s Teeth Baking Company in San Francisco and Backhaus in San Mateo.
Tiny Croissanterie’s coffee program is developed by Jose Garcia, who is the coffee program director at Shoji and previously was the general manager at SPRO Coffee Lab and Blue Bottle Coffee.
Coffee beverages will be made with beans from Moonwake Coffee Roasters, with espresso drinks made from Yellow Honey Field Blend (a blend from Honduras with notes of banana bread, almond and pear jam) and cold brew and drip coffee made from Finca Lord Voldemort (a Colombian bean with notes of crown melon, Melona bar and cantaloupe). Besides coffee, expect tea, noncaffeinated fruity drinks and chocolat chaud.
In addition to baked goods and coffee, Tiny Croissanterie will eventually launch a lunch program, likely two or three months after opening, Wang said. The lunch program will focus on focaccia sandwiches, onion soup, salads and yogurt parfaits.
The cafe seats about 42 and has a minimalistic ambiance featuring white tiles, wooden furniture and plenty of natural light. Outdoor seating will also be available.
Tiny Croissanterie joins a growing number of Asian French fusion bakeries in Silicon Valley, including WhatCoffee & Bakery in Santa Clara, Kukje Bakery in Daly City and Anton SV Patisserie in Palo Alto and San Mateo. More bakeries known for their croissants are expected to arrive in Silicon Valley, with Arsicault and Croissante both projected to open in Palo Alto later this year.
Tiny Croissanterie, 201 S. Mary Ave. #1, Sunnyvale; Instagram: @tinycroissanterie. Expect a grand opening later this month (to be announced), with tentative hours daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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