La Boulange de Columbus

This was a great place my family and I always looked forward to when we visited SF. Starbucks bought it, ruined it, and closed it.
Starbucks, you SUCK!

So, this place is gone. Sad and surprised. It seemed to do a brisk business and I loved both their pastries and outdoor seating near the park. A few mornings ago with bag in tow I’m up early and find all the windows papered over. I guess I’m just not plugged in — I go there regularly with my daughter before school and never heard a peep about any plans to shutter the windows. It will be missed.
How did this place fail? I don’t get it.
Update: I understand now after reading the Chronicle article (and I want to puke):

Dear Starbucks:
La Boulange was always such a wonderful place to go – delicious pastries, hot chocolate in a bowl, kind and attentive workers, lovely free samples, great prices in an otherwise offensively expensive city, and food I loved to eat in or take out on city strolls or picnics.
Then YOU bought it. Within a few years you managed to desperately f*** it up. I don’t know how you corrupted their pastries so that they tasted like burned rubber, but could you blame anyone for not wanting to buy them? Then, like a spoiled child with a toy it can’t figure out how to play with, you decided to break it and throw it away. You couldn’t strategize and change gears so as to make it work? You just decided to heave your massive corporate bulk at the place and waited until it smashed? I held out a bit of hope when speaking to the employees at Boulange, who told me you were in dialogue with the bakery’s owners and there was a chance that Boulange would survive (though it would no longer be offered at your stores). But somehow that opportunity also fell through, and now Boulanges are closed all over the city.
Starbucks, you’re a nasty corporate bully. You’re the kind of place that makes America look bad, that makes other countries shake their heads at our economic system and policies and wonder why we put up with this kind of thing and think it’s normal.
RIP, Boulange. I’ll miss you.

Yummy coffee and delicious food. Especially café au lait, apple turnover, French toast and onion soup. I will miss everything here.

I ordered capucinno and they made it like latte. They tried to remake it but there’s no difference.

Come here almost every Sunday. Always friendly and great pastries to go with the great coffee. Try their version of French Toast.

We stopped by here for coffee and a snack this week. It was not crowded on a Monday mid-​morning, so it was quick to get two coffees and an almond croissant. We easily sat at the table for 6 people and hung out for a while. The coffee was good and so was the warm almond croissant. It’s a decent place to stop if you are in North Beach and you want a break.

Got the scrambled egg breakfast, with sausage, fruit bowl and toast. The eggs were microwaved (you could see the air bubbles throughout) and cut into cubes (for what? to make it look scrambled eggs like?) as well as the sausage. :-\ I call that an epic fail. I’d rather eat an sausage egg McMuffin.
The saving grace was that the caramel latte was decent. Not too sweet.

We were visiting San Fran for the first time. On our way to the Alcatrez tour, we were looking for a reasonable, but decent place to enjoy breakfast. We were very pleased. If you want a pretentious sit down and be served, this is not the place. We (4 of us) ordered breakfast sandwiches, fruit, coffees and mocha. Everything was excellent. Fresh baked croissants were fabulous. If you like granola, do not miss their homemade version. It was superb, and the coffee was excellent too!
You go to to the front and order your food. The coffee is made and given right away, and the food is delivered to your table by someone. It was moderately full, and we received food at the table in five minutes. Excellent, I highly recommend this place, and would definitely come again.

Yummy coffee (wtf in a huge bowl?)
Good assortment of pastries and menu food.
EXCELLENT condiment bar, including NUTELLA!

This is my favorite La Boulange location! I love getting their London Fog Latte. They make the best one. They actually put a good amount of foam and madagascar vanilla syrup unlike their Noe Valley location that cheats you and skims out on the syrup and the size of your drink. What jerks. Not this place tho. You get what you paid for.
In a course of two months, I have been here at least 10 times and each time, I had nothing but great service from the people behind the counter and the nice cleaning lady.
The place is so spacious, so many seats, where to sit? Near the open windows, outside on the sidewalk, inside? Gosh, how do people choose? lol Their selection of pastry is almost always stocked. I love the red fruit tart, it’s sooo delicious!
I had their club sandwich with potatoes and it was really good. If you are hungry, this is the dish for you. It was like a triple decker sandwich and it was so good. I had their bread pudding, huge portion, which means it totally matches the price, very eggy, but not a problem.
They have actual punch cards ! Guys! Five Star cards are great, but how awesome is it to go back in time to when we use to carry like 10 different stamp/​punch cards? It’s great! They actually hole punch your punch card! And I love how you can pay with your starbucks app!
I’m a little sad that they close at 6, I wish they open until 7 or 8. I would totally love to come here for a cup of joe when I am going on an evening stroll.

La Boulange is a great neighborhood place. I love stopping by for a coffee and macaron while running weekend errands. My favorite treat is the red velvet macaron, small but sweet! Also, try the almond croissant — just try to avoid getting powdered sugar and almond slivers everywhere!
The tables are typically full, so I wouldn’t bring a group here without a backup location, but I can always find a place for one or two if I wanted to sit with a book or a friend. The outside seating is pleasant as well, with heaters, if the San Francisco summer/​winter gets too cold.

We had the potato and ham tart this morning and it was delicious. Layers of thinly cut potato.
We also picked up 20 dinner rolls for Thanksgiving dinner tonight.
The people working here were very nice.
We then walked up to Coit tower for great views of all of San Francisco, the parrots were yakking away and it was like a mystical walk thru a jungle!

Good neighborhood Boulange. They would have gotten 4 stars, but they don’t have Wi-Fi…I mean whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!! Seriously? They need to get that in the North Beach neighborhood… c’mon man! Their coffee is decent… and the food is typical Boulange fare and quality, so no complaints there. I had most recently the ham/​cheese quiche and a latte… both were good. Staff is friendly (and they also are surprised they don’t have Wi-​Fi, BTW!).

My very 1^st lunch here on my 2^nd day, my friends sure know the right places, as to be expected ;)
Obviously a French-​inspired theme, even the tile flooring and seats.
Ordered:
french toast: a bit out of the ordinary, not your typical thick toast but more like an egg custard. can’t say i was a big fan…
egg cheese croissant sandwich with avocado, a winner here. all meals came w/​freshly cut fruit.
bread pudding: this is certainly a must-​try, that crust is amazing, and the inners so soft and fresh. wished i had ordered more of this!
free self serve water, another bonus.
great atmosphere, very european and date worthy for lunch ;)

The line is out the door, and this place is famous as I’ve heard of it outside of San Francisco.
But the chocolate croissant was absolutely terrible. It had a tiny little piece of hard chocolate inside that fell out when you took a bite. And the croissant itself was dry and unappealing. I guess I was spoiled by a nearby non-​famous bakery that makes a much better chocolate croissant, with a moist pastry and smooth chocolate filling throughout the entire inside.
Must say though the house decaf coffee was delicious here! Smooth and creamy!
TIP: The best thing about this place though is the coffee condiment bar. There is free jam, peanut butter and NUTELLA! I’ve never seen this anywhere else!
2.5 stars! Really fell below expectations.

My family and I were in town from San Diego and actually tried to go to Mama’s nearby, which was too crowded. We drove around looking for another place and found this café!
Several of us got an almond croissant and loved it. I had the French Toast, which was fluffy and delicious — albeit smaller than I expected. It was still rich though, and filing. The breakfast sandwiches were also a hit with us!

Cute coffee shop in North Beach. It’s a great place to stop in and get a pastry and a cup of coffee. I got a chocolate croissant and a small cup of mocha. The croissant was warned up so the chocolate was nice and gooey. The mocha tastes like how it should taste. Both of these items together was kind of too much chocolate for me. My bf thought it would be a good mix.
Anyways, sit by the window and enjoy the music with the dim romantic lighting. I might’ve enjoyed my experience more here if it wasn’t for the large group of men speaking so loudly inside.

Okay place for food… Great place to grab a latte.

Great addition of another La Boulange at a nice location!
It is a spacious café with outdoor seats!
Their décor, as a chain, is pretty charming to dine at or to lounge at for quite some time! No Wi-​Fi, however!
I love La Boulanges’ bakeries — especially their Pecan pie! Scrumptious and La La La delightful to a sweet toothed person… i.e. ME!

Ham & Cheese croissants!!! Deliciousness.