Scarsdale ”“ land of well-manicured lawns and well-sculpted bodies. But look closely and you”™ll notice something intriguing ”“ not one or two but five shops that specialize in baked goods.
Within the past year, Martine”™s Fine Bake Shop and Patisserie Salzburg have joined the well-established Galloway”™s Bakery, famed for its home-style pies, Lulu Custom Cake Boutique, where you can have your designer purse and eat it, too, and La Renaissance Pâtisserie Française, where almond-flavored confections reign à la Louis XIV.
Has this affluent village of 17,500-plus residents developed an insatiable sweet tooth?
“I think people go to the bakeries for comfort,” says Jay Muse, owner of Lulu Custom Cakes at 40 Garth Road. Its culinary creations ”“ ranging from handbags to bulldogs to hot-air balloons ”“ are favorites of stars like Mariah Carey, Chloë Sevigny, Britney Spears, Whoopi Goldberg and her fellow television kaffeeklatschers on The View.
But look around these places. ItӪs a caf̩ culture that captures the best of Continental trends, insiders say.
“The bakeries in Europe are no longer just bakeries,” says Tal Campana, who owns Martine”™s at 48 E. Parkway with husband Frank and her brother, Youval Golan. “You have to be broad and have something for everyone.”
Campana knows what she”™s talking about. She grew up in Israel, where her father owns several restaurants and her mother was an excellent cook and baker. At the urging of Scarsdale patrons of the 3 ½-year-old Martine”™s in Tuckahoe ”“ the bakery was named after her daughter Â- Campana opened the second shop in Scarsdale on Dec. 13.
GolanӪs earth-toned d̩cor features textured walls the color of chocolate blended with whipped cream, a coffered ceiling, crystal and wrought-iron chandeliers, shimmering tiles and marble-topped tables.
Martine”™s offerings include everything from butternut squash soup, crusty thin baguettes of ham and cheese, a rich pound cake and French macaroons that are more cake than cookie and come in such flavors as praline, chocolate and blueberry. “It”™s the cookie of now,” Campana says.
At Martine”™s, “Definitely, we take no shortcuts. We use real (ingredients.) A pastry shouldn”™t just look right. It should taste right. It”™s an art.”
Martine”™s and the new Patisserie Salzburg”™s café atmospheres play into the cosmopolitan nature of Scarsdale, a Tudor-style community of white stucco, brown beams and cobblestone. Indeed, Par Shakiban says the reason he and business partner Manfred Hirz opened a Patisserie Salzburg in the village last October ”“ there”™s been one in Rye for 17 years ”“ was to give Scarsdale its just desserts, so to speak.
A restaurateur with interests in real estate and construction, Shakiban was looking to discuss a building investment in the village with a friend over coffee, only to be unable to find a café he liked. He opened his own.
“This is a place consistent with the needs, caliber and sophistication of the people of Scarsdale,” Shakiban says of his Patisserie Salzburg.
On a Saturday afternoon, Patisserie Salzburg is packed. The shop is brightened by a hot peach-pink and white decor that suggests cherry blossoms in spring. Customers lounge beneath a sun-welcoming recessed ceiling and chandeliers and gaze through picture windows at passersby and traffic on tony Christie Place. They choose from a menu that offers an array of soups and salads, fluffy crepes, a chocolate ganache cake that is a birthday classic and Salzburg”™s highly esteemed cheese Danish. Gelato is coming.
Both Martine”™s and Patisserie Salzburg plan to add outdoor seating for the warm-weather months.
So is it too much of a good Continental thing? Can Scarsdale accommodate so many upscale bakeries?
“My philosophy has always been that competition is good for business,” Shakiban says. “If you maintain high standards and quality and are consistent in your delivery, then you can succeed in any business and compete with any entity.”
David Shore agrees, to a point. The managing partner of La Renaissance, a French patisserie nestled into Harwood Court, Shore has seen other bakeries come and go, including one that once stood across from where Patisserie Salzburg has opened.
“It depends on if you have enough of a following,” he says. “Everyone has their niche. But it”™s a question if enough people shop enough to make all survive.”
“Come back in a year and I”™ll tell you.”
