Bathazar for Breakfast

There's no better sight, walking into the office, than seeing a stack of pastry boxes from Balthazar.

What lies inside? Pain au chocolat.

 Plain croissants.

And, le mieux, almond croissants.

Admittedly not my favorites in the city. But a little taste of Paris goes a long way.

80 Spring St, NYC
212.965.1413

French breakfast club at Lafayette

This is a sign that I like to see:

Because, inside, French pastries abound.

Almond croissants...

Pain au chocolat...

Plain croissants...

Frangiopane tart...

All these pastries are pitch-perfect, grace à pastry chef Jen Yee.

Ben and I met there for Breakfast Club and strategically selected our petite dejeuner pour deux.

We even let a slice of savoriness slide by. (The garden quiche. It was delicious.)

And added a butterscotch coffee éclair. For breakfast. It was insanely delicious.

But maybe my favorite thing was the pistachio pound cake.

 I swear, it was the taste that transported me back to Paris.

À la prochaine, Lafayette!

Beautiful at Runner & Stone

Gowanus is cleaning up real well.

Four months in, Runner & Stone is already renowned for its bread.

 

But its French pastries by Amy's Bread alum Peter Endriss deserve a look, and taste, too.

Runner & Stone
285 Third Avenue
Brooklyn

Something good right under your nose

Do you know L.A. Burdick?

I’ve always known them for their chocolate mice. I don’t know why. Even after they moved into a quiet strip of 20^th Street here in New York and I’d stroll through from time to time to ogle the pastries, I only thought of them for chocolate mice.

 

So I was happy to meet a friend for breakfast early one weekday morning. The pastry case was plein, full.

 With cakes and torts of various sizes, flavors and fashions.

Let’s get a closer look at those.

And they had plenty of French specialties. Macarons with nice croutes.

Miam.

 Miam, miam.

Madeleines...

...and, the reason we were there: pain au chocolat.

The perfect way to start a day: breakfast with a friend over French pastries.

Breakfast at Cookshop

When two fellow Sweet Freaks invite you to meet for a pastry breakfast at which the talented pastry chef will be present, what do you do?

Duh.

 

Needless to say, I was all too thrilled to join Niko and Kathy recently for a casual breakfast at Cookshop, at which Chef Amanda Cook talked to us about the development of the restaurant’s breakfast and pastry services. Since April, they’ve been serving up fresh baked muffins, scones, cakes and other pastries—including the most divine pain au chocolat I’ve had since Paris.

Much more chocolaty than anything you’d find là-bas, but with about the same amount of butter (that is, a lot), it was nothing short of heavenly. And Chef Cook graciously offered to start serving them with Kleenex as I told her it made me want to weep.

On the American front, she’s just as adept. A butternut squash chocolate chip muffin?? Genius.

Deliciously moist and spongy, it’s her favorite baked good with good reason.

And though I too loved it, and the blueberry muffin and Have a Nice Day muffin...

... I was especially crazy for the cookies.

Chocolate chip cookies that are gritty with sugar and butter and wonderfully laden with boulders of chocolate. And the peanut butter cookies: also magically moist, both savory and sugary.

The daily offerings, which come out of the oven right before the restaurant opens at 7:30 and are served supremely fresh until 11, change daily. So I think Niko, Kathy and I are going to have to return to sample some more.

Cookshop
156 10th Avenue