Sweet Treats: Mille-feuille Bakery
As I tend to be a bit obsessive-compulsive about things, I recently found myself possessed with the idea of getting to Paris after learning about a bakery that specializes in what is the equivalent of a French version of the Hostess snowball.
It was all I could think about. To curb the insanity, I find myself trying to recreate the experience. I made and ate those French snowballs every day for two weeks until I couldn’t stand them anymore. I needed a fix, and bad. So when I heard about this new French pastry shop that had opened downtown, well I knew it was on my to-do list. Cooler bag in hand, I made my way to Mille-feuille Bakery. It is a tiny sliver of a shop in the Lupa neighborhood, hardly where one would expect to find perfect French pastries. When you walk in the first thing you will notice is the incredibly heady smell of butter, real butter, not the fake popcorn butter smell that perfumes the Food Emporium bakery at 8:30 am on any given morning.
The display of available pastries is very small but just a few feet from you is Chef Olivier in his kitchen, preparing whatever deliciousness is at hand. Now, I’m a bit of a cleanliness freak, so I can appreciate seeing exactly how my food is prepared (again, the obsessive-compulsive in me comes out). There are no fancy, colorful, mousse-filled pastries here, only the classic viennosserie. I purchased a pain au chocolat, a raspberry almond croissant, a madeleine, a cheese brioche, some macarons and the shop’s namesake, vanilla millefeuille. My oldest son wolfed down most of the goods within seconds, leaving me a few begging bites in between. His prognosis — excellent. The croissants, I thought, were quite good and that’s from me, who can mount a heated thesis-style battle on the art of croissant.
The brioche was really delicious. If only I hadn’t dropped half of it on the floor, it would have been the only thing I got to keep all to myself. I guess the calorie gods were watching out for me. I was least impressed by that millefeuille although it was well prepared. I guess I was hoping for some magic since they named the place after them. They also have a few sandwiches prepared on brioche and boxes of classic sablée cookies. They don’t have any fancy packaging yet but I guess that helps keep the cost down. My entire bag of goodies ran only $14. I almost thought I was in the suburbs it was so cheap. If you’re in the neighborhood stop by for your morning coffee and treat.
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