With their names already sounding like a delectable selection of baked goods on a Asian grandmother’s table, Balboa Street newbie Cassava Café & Bakery and peripatetic pie-maker Butter Love Bake Shop will be joining forces Friday at a pop-up “Dessert Bar,” the first of many pop-ups planned at Cassava’s location.

Cassava’s Kris Toliao and Yuka Ioroi planned from the start to hold pop-up events at their café, something Kris says was inspired by the “restaurant within a restaurant” concept of Mission Street Food, a.k.a. Mission Chinese Food, located within the Lung Shan Restaurant space in the Mission District. Toliao and Ioroi plan to feature pop-up dinners monthly, turning their daytime café into a nighttime supper club showcasing Toliao’s elegant high-end menu, which will be markedly different from their usual rustic café fare.

In addition to their dinners, they also plan to feature collaborative pop-up events like the Dessert Bar featuring Butter Love Bake Shop, happening Friday from 5-8 p.m.

Outer Richmond resident and long-time pastry chef Esa Yonn-Brown has been the purveyor of all things baked and buttery-crusted at Butter Love for the past six and a half years. Although she doesn’t have retail space yet, Yonn-Brown has been selling her pies and pastries at neighborhood coffee shops such as Trouble Coffee, Simple Pleasures Cafe, and other cafés in the city, and also through online orders via her website, www.butterlovebakeshop.com.

The connection with Cassava was made when Yonn-Brown dropped off samples during Cassava’s opening days, in the hopes of gaining another wholesale customer. Although that arrangement didn’t materialize, Toliao and Ioroi invited her back for a pop-up event to specifically highlight her confections. Cassava cake, a dessert especially beloved by Toliao and the café’s namesake, will be on the Butter Love Bake Shop Dessert Bar menu using a recipe from Yonn-Brown’s Filipino grandmother. Selections will include Butter Love’s strawberry lavender cuppies (cupcake-sized pies made with house-grown lavender), baked banana cuppies with spiced creme fraiche, Key lime cuppies, personal apple pies, chocolate chip cookies, and coconut macaroons.

Following the Dessert Bar on Friday, Cassava will hold an “Appetizer Bar” event Saturday. Ioroi says that event will feature a tapas-style menu to “test out” their potential for use in a wine bar. Diners are free to bring in their own wine and glasses, and no corkage will be charged. Due to space limitations, people who want to attend should RSVP on the Facebook event page.

Cassava will announce future pop-up dinners on the fifth of every month, and the owners plan to hold their first dinner sometime in mid-April. Toliao and Ioroi also hope to feature more collaborative pop-up events in the future, although there are no confirmed upcoming partners as of yet.

“These pop-ups an opportunity for us to give customers something new and different each time, all under one space,” said Ioroi. “It’s also is a chance for us to collaborate with other producers and business, and see what we can come up with together.”

Dessert Bar Pop-up at Cassava Café

Friday, April 6, 5-8 p.m.

Appetizer Bar Pop-up

Saturday, April 7, 5-8 p.m.

Butter Love Bake Shop

Twitter @butterlovebakes