At the new Little Hidden Bakery in Rancho Santa Fe, you can find flaky and buttery croissants, sugary sweet rolls and fresh sourdough bread and baguettes baked up daily. Inside the the lower corner spot in Fairbanks Village Plaza that used to be 067 Eatery, the barista on board serves up locally roasted coffee and espresso drinks, alongside homemade lemonade made with orange-blossom water and fresh mint from the garden.
An evolving breakfast and lunch menu during the bakery’s soft opening includes breakfast burritos, sandwiches, salads and sandwiches on sourdough and croissants, and the shelves are stocked with gourmet treats and specialty sips like pickles, popcorn and Ciprani’s Peach Bellini mocktails.
And very soon, they will start making the custom cakes they have become famous for over the last five years: the German chocolate cake, the burnt almond torte, lemon, strawberry and many more.
“The cakes are absolutely out of this world,” said Sandy Rahib, who co-owns the bakery with Tina Assi.
Cake is what brought the two women together.
Seven years ago, Rahib was attending a friend’s birthday party and she had been responsible for bringing the cake until she was called off: another friend and pastry chef would instead be bringing her own cake creation. Rahib was initially annoyed because she lost her cake deposit… but then she tried the cake.
“I could not believe how absolutely delicious her cake was,” said Rahib, who immediately wanted to meet the person responsible for the to-die-for triple chocolate raspberry cake.
The two became fast friends (“She’s like a sister to me”) and Rahib was convinced that Assi needed to share her gifts with the world through a new business venture together.
Assi had been making her sweet desserts for years and later went to culinary school to perfect her skills. Professionally, she has also been a medical esthetician and eyebrow specialist for 25 years with Dr. M.K. Batra at Del Mar’s Coastal Plastic Surgeons. Rahib has always had a ion for baking too but brought the front-of-the-house experience to the table as her family has been in the restaurant business in San Diego for over 30 years.
Together they were Little Hidden Bakery before they had their little hidden spot in Rancho Santa Fe, starting in 2020. The small business focused on private catering, corporate s and local farmers markets with cakes, cookies, croissants and pastries. They became well known for their pink and white striped boxes and the sweet treats inside.
Rahib and Assi live up the street from San Dieguito Road in Del Sur and Rahib’s children go to the nearby Nativity School so she was always at the plaza’s Ranch Market. When 067 closed and the for lease sign went up, she knew it was the perfect spot for their first brick and mortar bakery.
“Everything happened so smoothly,” she said of working with the Fairbanks Village Plaza property manager Kristin Preston, undergoing the construction and remodel and getting cleared by the health department.
Outside they added swirly gold embellishments on the windows and inside the space got a whole new look. They lowered the former bar to a counter height, kept the charming window seats and added new flooring and painting. The walls are painted a pistachio green, matching their Dubai croissants and lattes, and playing off light rose subway tiles, and white and black cabinetry. Their signature pink and white boxes have a starring role behind the countertop.
The display cases are filled with freshly baked croissants and pastries—chocolate and almond croissants and their unique vanilla cardamom roll, a tasty twist on their popular cinnamon rolls.
They have put everything they love on their evolving menu.
“Our open-faced Gruyère cheese and black forest ham croissant, we sold out of those every single day,” Rahib said. “It has been our best seller.”
They also serve “pizza boats”, made with homemade pizza dough and fresh tomato sauce, topped with cheese and artichoke: “Every time we put those out on the counter, they’re gone, they’re delicious,” Rahib said.
Since their soft opening on March 10, business has been growing through word of mouth and they have been “pleasantly surprised” by the response—they have seen a lot of local office tenants come in for coffee, pastries and lunch, parents and kids from the nearby schools stopping by in the afternoon and several ladies from Fairbanks Ranch meeting friends for coffee. People have been telling them that something like this was needed in this part of the Ranch.
With their first positive week behind them, Rahib said they are still learning with the soft opening, training staff and perfecting the menu. They have already accepted new catering gigs and are ready to take any custom cake orders: “We’re so happy, we love it. I think it’s going to be really good.”
Little Hidden Bakery is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 16236 San Dieguito Road. For information or orders call (858) 914-3116 or visit littlehiddenbakery.com
The bakery will also be providing the goodies for the Monday, March 24 grand reopening for the Fairbanks Village Plaza’s newly expanded Dr. Melanie Orthodontics and Children’s Dentistry of Rancho Santa Fe offices. Guests are welcome to stop by from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
