Media hype has been fierce for pastry chef and owner William Werner’s new Craftsman and Wolves, a unique Mission bakery-cafe-patisserie for creative baked goods and sweets, changing sandwiches and salads, Sightglass Coffee, Naivetea, crave-inducing Valrhona drinking chocolate and (you’re hearing right) dreamy, sippable caramel made with salted butter and mini-croissant crostini to dunk.

At a media preview on 6/13 a few days before the cafe opened, I sampled in an ideal way through nearly the entirety of offerings (though they will continue to change), a helpful way of grasping the menu’s breadth and vision. In keeping with Werner’s past, it’s an impeccable selection that thankfully does not duplicate what you find in many topnotch cafes and pastisseries around the city. In fact, it does its own thing entirely: foods made with a fine-dining aesthetic and forward-thinking creativity, but served casually to-go or in the inviting, skylit, brick-walled space.

Besides my early taste-through, I’ve been back for a couple visits during initial opening days. Here is a photo journey with stand-outs noted.

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