The food is fantastic and the atmosphere is lovely. The service is friendly but right after I ordered I wasn’t really told how long it would be and felt ignored by the guy who rang me up given they were busy. I waited 20 minutes for avocado toast. At least it was really yummy. The same guy who just handed it to me was the one who rang me up and again was very dismissive. I know Marin is entitled but this doesn’t need to leak into customer service.
The Grant Avenue Shakedown
The Marin fog was hanging low, creeping down Grant Avenue like a bad rumor. I took a table in the parklet outside Creekside Bakery—a cold, diamond-patterned wire mesh setup. Across from me sat my accomplice: a miniature anarchist tracking local crows and waiting for the sugar to hit her central nervous system.
Here is the forensic breakdown of how the transaction went down.
The Liquid Assets:
The Espresso: A double shot in a heavy, brilliant turquoise cup. Dark and bitter as a sour jury verdict. A single droplet of brown oil was making a slow, guilty run down the side of the ceramic, just to the right of the handle.
The Latte: Complete with a foam tulip poured with suspicious artistic precision. It rested on a stark white paper slip reading simply BAKERY in a tall, clean, hand-stamped font. A classic North Bay cover to keep the paper trail anonymous.
The Iced Latte: Cold as a coroner's slab, with a plastic straw pointing skyward. The anarchist kept her eye on this delivery vehicle for speed.
The Solid Evidence:
The Savory Scone: A heavy, square-jawed block of baked masonry, studded with green scallions and whole yellow corn kernels. Dense and entirely unapologetic about its savory intentions.
The Salted Caramel Croissant: On the menu, they call it a croissant—an alias to hide its laminated, spiral ancestry. It was so heavily caramelized and glossy it looked like it had been freshly varnished by a corrupt planning commissioner. A mahogany lacquer designed for absolute moral compromise.
The Dark Chocolate Dome: A perfectly round sphere topped with a precise cluster of tiny chocolate pearls (dark, milk, and white crisped-rice spheres) looking like stolen ball bearings from a heist in San Rafael.
The Swedish Princess Cake: The crown jewel of Grant Avenue. Cloaked in mint-green marzipan and striped with a dark chocolate drizzle applied with the precision of a hazard sign. Green and black—nature’s warning that this is highly venomous or highly delicious.
The Crime Scene:
The peace didn't last. The anarchist made a swift, unprovoked strike, liquidating the sharp leading point of the green marzipan wedge. Her dental records were left practically stamped into the yellow sponge cake, pale pastry cream, and thin line of raspberry jam inside.
The aftermath in the white bowl was a total mess: one chocolate smear at the six o'clock position and a single white crispy pearl rolling free like an eyeball dropped by a nervous informant.
The Verdict:
Creekside Bakery has the whole town of Novato hooked on this sweet, sticky protection racket. You sit by the creek, you listen to the birds, and you pay your pastry tax. We'll be back tomorrow.
After our workout at GActive, my gym friends, instructor, and I decided to try this coffee shop—and wow, what a find! The place is super cute, cozy, and full of yummy treats. The staff is so friendly and even asked if we wanted a coffee refill.
I had a latte and a ham & cheese croissant—absolutely loved it! I liked it so much that I came back the very next day for more (no regrets 😄). Plenty of parking, too, which makes it even better. Highly recommend!
One of the best bakeries I’ve been too!! I still am thinking about the lemon pistachio danish! The avocado toast is amazing as well staff are super nice! Must go!!
