Not even fire could keep this East Bay couple from serving sweets, savories
HERCULES — Wafts of sweetness greet those who walk into Sugar Toof, a Filipino-Italian fusion bakery and cafe run by wife-and-husband duo Kate and Joe Zecchin.
Rows of cupcakes, cakes, cookies, cannoli and ensaymadas, a type of filled Filipino sweet bun, line the display cases at 1511 Sycamore Ave., a shopping plaza in Hercules. Cups of coffee drinks, classically prepared or dressed up with rich flavors, are also passed across the counter. As are other savory dishes like empanadas, pasta and other traditional Filipino favorites.
The shop and its offerings are a representation of the Zecchin’s blended life, with Joe Zecchin pulling from his Italian background and Kate Zecchin from her Filipino heritage.
The cafe’s grand reopening came this summer, about two years after a fire forced the business and other shops out of the plaza where Kate Zecchin’s parents had run Sugar Toof’s predecessor, the Sunflower Bakery, since 1981.
“It’s been a journey. It’s been a lot of ups and it’s been a lot of downs,” Joe Zecchin said. “Everything we’ve experienced in just the past two, three years, it’s been crazy. We had the business, we’ve lost the business, we have the business again.”
The Zecchins recently sat down with Bay Area News Group to speak about the important role Halloween played in fueling their shared dream of running a shop of their own and the hurdles they’ve had to clear to keep that dream alive.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. Let’s start from the beginning. Where did your love for food come from?
A. Joe: I always liked cooking. It was more like a hobby. I would watch Martha Stewart when I came home from school. I’d watch the Cooking Channel with my parents and my dad would always cook. I’d help my dad chop things or see what he did in the kitchen.
Kate: I always wanted to go to culinary school but my mom was against it, especially coming from an Asian family. My mom wanted me to be a doctor.
Q. How did the idea for the business ultimately come together?
A. Kate: It started Halloween of 2018. Instead of giving away candies, we decided to just bake cookies and put them in jars. We just posted it online for fun and people were actually really interested because we packaged our jars really cute. From there, it blew up.
Joe: It really became clear during the pandemic. She was working in Oakland and I worked in San Francisco. But then we both got furloughed during the pandemic. So we did the whole pop-up thing out of our apartment and that’s where we really started everything online and started to create the brand.
Q. Getting to where you are now hasn’t been easy. Tell me more about the ups and downs.
A. Kate: We took over Sunflower Bakery which was my family’s. They gave it up during the pandemic and from there we rebranded to Sugar Toof. We were doing well for about two years when a fire broke out in the plaza. It wasn’t a big fire but the building wasn’t up to code so the city closed down the whole plaza. I was on maternity leave so it was a really tough time.
Joe: We were prepared but we weren’t prepared. We lost a lot. During the time off we really had to figure out what we were going to do day to day. It was a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of anger, frustration and tears. But then we finally said we need to start looking for another location.
Q. And how has it been in the new spot?
A. Joe: We’re more seen over here than where we were over there for sure. And doing hot food now, which we didn’t do there, brings in a different clientele.
Kate: Before when we were across the street it was more Filipino forward. Now it’s more diverse. Before we could count how many non-Filipino people came in and now it’s more of a mix. So we’re really happy.
Q. How did the blend of flavors come together?
A. Joe: Surprisingly, Filipino and Italian, they kind of use the same ingredients. Pork is a big thing in both cultures. Sweets are a big thing. … We just started to experiment, tweaking things.
Kate: Italian and Filipino cuisine are both family oriented and focused. A lot of carbs for sure.
Q. Have you noticed any top sellers?
A. Joe: If we could do everything ube, everything would sell. … Everybody likes the color, taking pictures of it. It’s very Instagramabale. Same with matcha.
Kate: Anything purple sells. For example, this drink we have (the ube tiramisu latte) was just supposed to be a grand opening special but people really liked it so we kept it on the menu.
Q. How do you feel about the relationship between running a small business and social media and influencers?
A. Kate: We get it. We’re lucky because a majority who come here just come to support and don’t ask for free stuff. But the people who ask for money or free items for a post or video, we declined. For a small business like us and what we’ve been through, we don’t have the means at the moment to give the amount they’re asking. If it’s donations for things like school, we’re more interested in that.
Joe: It’s better when it happens organically. … Just let the products speak for themselves and people appreciate that more than buying reviews.
Q. After all of the hardships, what is it that kept you both in the chase after this dream?
A. Joe: This is it. There’s just nothing else. Trust me, I wanted to give up but she’s been the one pushing.
Kate: We saw the potential of what it could be because we were really doing well across the street. This is the dream. It’s a gamble but this is really the thing we want to do.
KATE AND JOE ZECCHIN
Company: Sugar Toof
Titles: Co-founders and owners
Residence: Hercules, California
Education: University of Santo Tomas, Philippines (Kate), San Francisco State University (Joe), Contra Costa College Culinary Management School (both)
FIVE THINGS ABOUT KATE AND JOE ZECCHIN
1. Food brought the couple together. They met in culinary school and were married about two years later in 2017.
2. Before finding their way to the kitchen, Kate was pursuing a career in journalism and Joe was working at a law firm.
3. Kate honed her skills at Soba Ichi, a Japanese restaurant in West Oakland, and as a sous chef at Berkeley’s Gaumenkitzel, a German restaurant that closed in 2024. Meanwhile, Joe was sharpening his knife at the now shuttered Artisan Bistro in Lafayette, Powder Keg Pub in Hercules, Italian restaurant Cotogna in San Francisco and as a sous chef at Verjus, a French-inspired restaurant in San Francisco.
4. They welcomed their son Zeno in 2023, about two months before the couple lost the first iteration of Sugar Toof.
5. Even when studying journalism, food was central for Kate Zecchin who planned to use her degree to one day publish a cook book.