Libby Jane Cafe Tenderloin Brenda's Biscuits | Tasting Table San Francisco

Brenda Buenviaje came up with the recipe for her cream biscuits before she ever opened Brenda's French Soul Food. "I wanted something voluptuous," she says.

The biscuits have always been one of the great small pleasures of brunching at Brenda's. They're several shades richer than your average biscuit but just as flaky.

Now they're available at her new cafe, Libby Jane, which she named after her wife and business partner, Libby Truesdell. The space may be even more inviting than the restaurant next door, with a long display of house-made pickles and black-and-white floral wallpaper blooming on the walls.

The cooler at Libby Jane

The cooler is stocked with prepackaged pimento-cheese sandwiches, more cookies are on display than a Christmas buffet, and the baristas ably make Ritual espresso drinks.

The cream biscuits here ($2 for plain) come in three or four flavors, each served with a jam or spread. One biscuit, riddled with fresh blueberries and coated in large-grain sugar ($2.50), almost crosses into scone territory. Another, flecked with bacon, melted cheddar and green onion ($2.50), could double as a light lunch. (Or at least that can be your excuse to buy two.)

It's critical, though, to let the server re-warm your biscuits in the toaster oven. "In café culture it's okay to serve biscuits at room temperature," Buenviaje says. "That's just not good enough for me."