Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates to open patisserie in new midtown Sacramento building

Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates will open a second midtown Sacramento location with baked goods such as croissants, danishes and other Viennoiseries, owner Ginger Elizabeth Hahn confirmed Monday.

Ginger Elizabeth Patisserie at 2413 J St. will carry all macarons, chocolates, ice cream and other desserts already offered at Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates’ other location at 1801 L St., Suite 60. It’ll lie under The Didion condominium complex along with Pushkin’s gluten- and dairy-free Babes Donuts & Ice Cream, Wild Heart Beauty salon and Ro Sham Beaux, a new wine bar from the owners of de Vere’s Irish Pub.

The bakery will be about 1,800 square feet with built-in seating for 10 customers whenever the coronavirus pandemic subsides, plus outdoor dining and a shared common space with its Didion neighbors. It will have a display case of breakfast pastries and petit gateaux, or small cakes, when it opens in September, Hahn said. An expanded hot chocolate and espresso bar aims to keep lines from piling up as they do on L Street.

Ginger Elizabeth began offering delivery around Sacramento at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and Hahn made several of those drives herself. Meanwhile, trips to Ginger Elizabeth’s second location in San Francisco became harder with three kids under 12 years old now constantly at home and the streets in the surrounding Cow’s Hollow neighborhood shut down. Hahn closed the Cow Hollow location for good in mid-June, though she said she hopes to eventually reopen in San Francisco.

“I was driving all over Sacramento, looking at all the houses, all the customers and people coming out to support us. It really dawned on me that I just want to put my effort here in this town,” Hahn said. “COVID is putting different things in perspective, and maybe that’s making life a little more simple and making community a little more of a focus. It was just kind of a no-brainer for us.”

General manager Candace Mena will oversee both stores, while pastry chef/production manager Daniel Lindsey will introduce the J Street cafe’s new baked goods. The macarons and chocolates for which Ginger Elizabeth is best known will still be made in a West Sacramento warehouse.

A Camino native, Hahn graduated from Santa Barbara Community College’s culinary arts program and the Culinary Institute of America — Hyde Park. She became the pastry chef of now-closed Masque Ristorante in El Dorado Hills at the age of 22, began selling her desserts wholesale in 2005 and opened the L Street store in January 2008.

This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 2:01 PM.