Not quite the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, but this week I want to bring to your attention two stellar bakers and a talented ice cream maker. They are the new offshoots of existing artisanal businesses – all three distinctly different but consummately skilled at what they do and the products they offer
Now with around 150 stores in 30 states, and more than 4,000 stores worldwide (predominantly in South Korea,) Paris Baguette may be the biggest national and international chain you’ve never heard of. Get with the program, though. The company plans on 1,000 locations across the country by 2030.
Even I only cut my Paris Baguette teeth (so to speak) relatively recently, at the store in Ithaca, New York, where blueberry chiffon and mango and coconut slices transported me from the frozen, wintry Finger Lakes to the romantic streets of Montmartre.
Embracing the franchise model, with its pristine navy and white cane bistro stacking chairs, honeycomb mosaic floor tiling and bold neon signage, Paris Baguette branches can look reassuringly familiar or disquietingly similar, depending on your point of view. But it is this verysameness, along with consistency of product, whether in Carlsbad, California, or Krong Siem Reap, Cambodia, that would appear to be the lodestar of the company’s success.
In the new Hartsdale location, which opened at the end of 2023, neither product nor procedure differs by a jot. (Stand where you know and know where you stand, as the saying goes.) You take your square tray, line it with a precut square of waxed paper, grab a pair of tongs and serve yourself from the mouth-watering displays. Aside from the medium-bake eponymous baguette and a selection of breads – including milk sandwich bead, soft cream bread, raisin bread and croissant loaf – there are gourmet sandwiches, classic salads, seasonal beverages and a good selection of teas and coffees.
But the real of joy of Paris Baguette, (“Joy Baked Into Every Bite” is just one of the company’s many slogans), are its pastries – cake slices, soufflés, berry tarts and cheesecakes – all of them so light they look as if they might need a paperweight to prevent them floating away. (My editor said she cannot get enough of the powdered doughnuts and croissants with strawberries, both stuffed with a luscious custard that separates French patisseries from other bakeshops.)
The well-established Fleetwood Bakery in Mount Vernon is a different kind of beast. It can’t compete with an enterprise like Paris Baguette, but nor I suspect would it want to. This is essentially a family-run business, using prime ingredients and tried-and-tested techniques to produce one-of-a-kind wedding, birthday and specialty cakes and pastries.
I was so taken when I caught owner Enzo Cutaia on the local news the day before Valentine’s Day at the ribbon-cutting for his Pleasantville shop, his eyes practically filling with tears as he said how proud he was of his new store, that the next day I went to try some of those house-baked treats for myself.
There I found irresistible Danish, meltaways, cream puffs and red velvet pastries, as well as a great selection of heart-shaped cakes and cookies. With a line extending out the door and onto the street and what I took to be family members all helping to serve behind the counter, I suddenly found myself at the front of the line facing Enzo himself. I felt honored as he took my order for the bakery’s famous “pregnant” cannolis, before disappearing into the kitchen to fill them himself with the bakery’s homemade cannoli cream.
What an asset this bakery – and this community-minded family – are going to be to Pleasantville.
It’s already been 12 years since Martine’s Fine Bake Shoppe of Tuckahoe opened a second location in Scarsdale. Now, Martine’s has a third outlet, an ice cream shop, Mimi’s by Martine’s, across the street from the Scarsdale locale, adjacent to the Metro-North station. The gelato is freshly churned “all day, every day,” made from scratch with natural ingredients, free from preservatives and artificial coloring.
It’s an absolute gem of a space, with great attention to detail in the design, from its tiled floor to its marble-top tables, teak columns and globe ceiling lights – not your typical pink-and-white-stripe American ice cream parlor but more like a beautiful, small gelateria in Milan or Turin. (Come the warmer weather, customers will be fighting over the five outdoor tables.)
And then there is the ice cream itself, piled high in fantastic displays like billowing clouds and with best-selling flavors, including gianduja and amarena stracciatella – although flavors change frequently. I rated both the pistachio and lemon cake 5/5 for taste and texture, but for me, the real glory of Mimi’s was its whipped cream. No cans or canisters here – this cream is the same quality cream that goes into Martine’s cakes and pastries, so rich and flavorsome you could eat a tub of it on your own.
Which, to my only slight shame, is exactly what I did.
For more, visit parisbaguette.com; westchestercakes.com; and martinesfinebakeshoppe.com.
