La Boulange's Critical Pan; CHEFS and Tech Team Up

STARBUCKS—La Boulange's pastries at Starbucks have the opposite of a fan in OC Weekly critic Dave Lieberman, who has dubbed them "the most disgusting breakfast on Earth." Considering we still regularly get comments like the aforementioned on a year-old article about La Boulange's purchase of Starbucks, the rollout may have been a bit too hasty. [~ EN ~]

SAN FRANCISCO—From the smile-to-your-face department: Zynga, Zendesk, and other mid-Market tech companies are hiring food workers from CHEFS, the program that trains homeless people in food service and helps them get jobs in restaurants. The program has educated 1,000 people and helped 75% find jobs and 80% find housing. [SF Business Times]

SAN FRANCISCO—Square is getting into the pre-ordering food apps business with a new offering, Square Pickup. While this isn't technically all that different from OrderAhead or GoPago, the company's existing reach in a lot of food businesses may give it a competitive advantage. [Priceonomics]

BERKELEY—Gregoire is now serving its highly popular lunch menu all day long, meaning it's possible to order the much-loved fried buttermilk chicken and sopressata sandwiches at dinnertime (and save some cash to boot). [Berkeleyside Nosh]