Grand Opening is the bakery from acclaimed pastry chef Melissa Chou, who’s worked in the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants Aziza, Mourad, Quince, and Mister Jiu’s. Chou began Grand Opening as a weekend pop-up out of Mister Jiu’s, selling goods out of a restaurant window facing Waverly Place, where fans ate up Chou’s spin on Asian-inflected treats, such as blueberry bolo bao and black sesame tea cake. Her treats earned the attention of the New York Times, with mentions of the burnt honey pie and the Parisian egg tart in the paper’s year-end best dishes roundups in 2024 and 2022, respectively.
Chou opened her standalone bakery in the O2 Artisans Aggregate in West Oakland in February 2026, sharing a space with Esteven Silva’s bread-focused
bakery, Studio Estepan. She’s brought over much of the pastries that fans buzzed about to her new space. The paired bakeries draw weekend lines to their door for a good reason.
What to order
- Grand Opening offers sampler boxes to help you get familiar with the goods. It’s how I worked my way through the menu, and I’d suggest starting there. The Magnolia Slice Box ($48) features four different pie slices, currently the burnt honey pie, black sesame guava cheese tart, Parisian egg tart, and chocolate mousse cake with whipped miso caramel. The quality of flavors and textures are equal across the board (read: excellent), and I’ll likely buy this box again in the future. If you asked me to pick amongst them, I’d say the black sesame guava cheese tart and chocolate mousse cake was the standout; the brightness of the guava glaze and the triple-layer threat of guava-black sesame-cheesecake tasted like summer. The chocolate mousse cake brings the intensity of a chocolate budino or ganache, but not in a cloying or intrusive way, and the whipped caramel miso adds another dimension of flavor without weighing it down. Everything mentioned is available for purchase a la carte, and the pricing per slice ranges from $10 to $14.
- The Cake Slice Box ($28) currently offers a taste of both the blackberry jasmine sponge cake and strawberry yuzu sponge. My notes upon trying both was, “impossibly soft cake texture” and I stand by that; it was the lightest sponge I’ve had in recent memory. To impress this upon you, a slice I was working on still tasted fluffy and light even after two days in the fridge. The strawberry yuzu sponge was my favorite here, and features small chunks of strawberry in the center band of cream; the yuzu really perks up the sweetness of the strawberry and enhances it. Individual slices sell for $14.
- The Pastry Box ($41) comes with the most goodies of the three boxes. The week I went, Chou bundled a caramelized pineapple cake; coconut scroll; strawberry almond wife cookie; black sesame almond tea cake with plum; and a chocolate and vanilla eclair. The caramelized pineapple cake is my darling here; the pineapple ring on top not only looks impressive, but it delivers an intense pineapple flavor. For those who have an aversion to anything too sweet, the shortbread holds its own, counterbalancing the pineapple. As for the other items, the flakiness of the almond wife cookie is out of this world (and the strawberry interior sweetens the deal), and the layers of the coconut scroll provided a nice bite set against the shredded coconut inside. Both felt comforting and familiar, but wholly new. Individual pricing ranges from $6 to $10.
Best for
A sweet treat for any occasion. The whole cakes and pies are perhaps more party-slash-celebration-coded. I’d argue that the individual pastries, cake slices, and pie slices are a more price-conscious everyday treat. Or, honestly, invite some friends over to share in a smorgasbord of sweets with you. These desserts can create an occasion for food-curious friends (like I assume you are, if you’re reading this). It’s not exactly a casual endeavor to buy sweets here, as some planning is involved, but it’s worth it if you have a sweet tooth; Chou does eventually plan to have a sale every Saturday, however, just check the Grand Opening Instagram to confirm.
Insider tip
There are ways to foolproof your visit to Grand Opening. You can pre-order boxes through the website starting the Monday prior to the upcoming weekend (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday). Whole cake and pie orders are available two weeks out. Pickups are typically timed for noon to 2 p.m. on your selected day. If you, like me, double up with carbs and fall in line for goods from Studio Estepan, you can pick up your Grand Opening order at the same time, ahead of the designated time from your order confirmation. (This is also your moment to add on any extra a la carte items from Grand Opening.) Chou also shares that if you have a pre-order, but aren’t ordering bread from Studio Estepan, you can skip the line and grab your goods from her directly.
