Long-Awaited French Bakery Brings a Taste of Paris to North Park

Modeled after a modern Parisian cafe, Pâtisserie Mélanie has opened its new 30th Street storefront and bakery more than three years after leasing the 1,500-square-foot corner site. Working with the architect behind Napa Valley’s famed Bouchon Bakery, the North Park salon is a sleek showcase for pastry chef Melanie Dunn, who launched her eponymous patisserie in 2018 out of the kitchen of her live-work space on Park Boulevard.

A former English teacher at a San Diego area high school, Dunn spent three summers in Paris attending Le Cordon Bleu, where she earned a Diplôme de Pâtisserie while eating her way through the best bakeries in the French capital.

Sidney Vongkasem

Her menu for the cafe includes classic, yeast-leavened viennoisseries like croissants, escargots aka pains aux raisins, and two different sizes of kouign-amann, the caramelized Breton pastry, as well as canneles, macarons, financiers, and traditional cakes and tarts ranging from mille-feuille and Paris-Brest to tarte tatin. There are also coffee drinks, French-style hot chocolate, and a variety of teas and tisanes from French gourmet food house Fauchon.

Sidney Vongkasem

The North Park cafe also serves beer and wine, and a weekend brunch menu that includes croque monsieurs, quiches, tartines, and savory stuffed buckwheat crepes known as galettes. Dunn tells Eater that a full lunch menu will be offered during the week starting this summer, along with an afternoon happy hour featuring cheese plates and savory petits-fours.