A Frenchman experiencing "Paris Baguette"
I recently went to the US for a business trip, and while there, a colleague dragged me into a "Paris Baguette" bakery. Here's my take.
Paris Baguette?
Right, so Eric (my colleague), knowing I was French, asked whether I knew "Paris Baguette" (or PB as he calls it). When I said "No, but that sounds like a cliché name", he laughed and told me that this is a bakery chain, started in Korea, and basically what they do is both regular croissants/pain au chocolat etc, but also "fusion food", e.g. croissants with "interesting" tastes.
Maybe Eric was expecting me to refuse, but since I'm open and like discovering new things, I said "let's do it over the weekend".
The experience
(Enseigne)
Upon arriving, I see this:
"A bit basic", I think - and then I see that:
"OK, at least it looks like they have real croissants (albeit with this chocolate spread), let's go".
Inside
Upon entering the store, it looks like a lot of coffee shops I've been to in the US:
- food on the right (more on that below),
- cashier in front of you, along with the coffee machine/baristas,
- tables to sit on the left.
Nothing fancy, but the aisle is large enough that you can walk, have a look before picking what you're interested in.
Food
The right hand side of the aisle is all about viennoiseries: you'll find a wide selection from the basics (croissant, pain au chocolat, pain au raisin), and also some more "advanced" like almond croissants and cheese-ham croissants.
But I wasn't there for this (although I tried a cheese-ham croissant): what I wanted to experience was the "real stuff", i.e. the fusion kind of food, and there was indeed plenty to choose from:
More food
On the left hand side, you have a selection of salads and "proper French sandwich", like "jambon beurre" (ham and butter) - I had none of them, but that's nice e.g. for lunch time.
Even more food
I didn't take pictures, but there were some very good looking cakes - the pricetag being on par with how good they look :) - i.e. > $40.
No baguette?
"Wait Nico" I hear you say, "it's called Paris Baguette, but there's no
baguette?"
Well, although it's not the main thing, there were a few baguettes available - I
had a quick glance and it looked like proper baguettes, but the price was also
premium, at least for a Frenchman: $3,99. (You can see it on the picture above).
Tasting it
What did we have?
We had:
- Red bean choux cream pastry,
- Matcha cream croissant,
- Almond pastry,
- Pain aux Raisins,
- Ham & cheese croissant,
- some mini feuilletés with chocolat chunks.
We cut each pastry in 2, so that Eric and I can each taste everything:
Verdict
I'll be honest and will not be a typical Frenchman (i.e. pretending only French bakeries can make proper croissants): I really liked PB!
Yes, their "classical" croissant is not the best I ever had, but the "fusion" food I had was very interesting and tasty: I like having unusual tastes, so for instance the beignet with the red beans was extremely nice and unexpected!
Talking about non-French bakeries, the best croissant I ever had outside France
was in San Francisco 5 years ago, at the small hotel I was staying at.
Upon discussing with the host, he told me that there's a vibrant French
community in SF, so bakeries are quite a thing here.
PB in France??
As I told you, PB started in Korea, and expanded in the US. I checked their
Wikipedia page and saw that they had franchises in
France as well.
And indeed, there's a French website reporting 2
bakeries in Paris: Chatelet and Saint Michel.
So I guess I'll have to test it next time I'm in Paris :-)