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July 14, 2019 by Ron Wen

Layered Croissanterie: A Flaky Take on Delectable Pastries for Downtown Raleigh

Front of Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh - nctriangledining.com
Front of Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh – nctriangledining.com

While I’m more of a savory guy versus a sweets guy, color me curious when I first heard about Layered Croissanterie coming to West Street in Raleigh. I hadn’t heard much through the foodie grapevine and its quirky location just north of Peace Street had me wondering. Layered Croissanterie officially opened up on June 30 and I’ve been able to stop in several times and sample their pastries. And I can tell you for sure that this savory-loving foodie is super excited to have them in the neighborhood, here’s why!

Pastel logo at Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh - nctriangledining.com
Pastel logo at Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh – nctriangledining.com

First things first, if you’re headed over to Layered, it’s located on a quiet section of West Street just north of the popular Cardinal Bar and the future Publix. You can also access West street off of Wade Avenue, right on the exit ramp for Capital Boulevard South which is really easy if you notice it. Layered Croissanterie sits in a newer, renovated building in white brick, just look for the pastel-colored logo and roll-up garage door.

Seating area at Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh - nctriangledining.com
Seating area at Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh – nctriangledining.com

Viewable baking area at Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh - nctriangledining.com
Viewable baking area at Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh – nctriangledining.com

Inside Layered Croissanterie it all feels white, light and airy with plenty of sunlight, casual seating up front. The modern looking space features a viewable baking area and small, counter order area in the back-right. A display of the day’s pastries sits up front on white pedestals so you can commence drooling before ordering! Note that Layered Croissanterie is only accepting cards as payment right now and is open 6 days a week, closed on Monday’s.

Crowd at Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh - nctriangledining.com
Crowd at Layered Croissanterie in Raleigh – nctriangledining.com

The menu at Layered Croissanterie is super simple: a handful of regular croissant pastries, rotating seasonal pastries along with coffee drinks and beverages, easy peasy! I’ve worked my way through a good chunk of the menu and have high praise for the croissants here. They are perfectly baked, buttery and showcase a density of layers for your enjoyment.

Croissant display at Layered Croissanterie - nctriangledining.com
Do not eat, for display only at Layered Croissanterie 🙂 – nctriangledining.com

While you can’t go wrong with any of them, my favorites include the double-baked bananas foster which is split down the middle and filled with chunky, banana spread and topped with cream. The lemon meringue cruffin (croissant muffin) is also fantastic, crowned with soft and sticky meringue and filled with a bit of lemony cream down the center. Oh and the kouign amann (pronounced Queen Aman) pastries are delicious simplicity. A croissant type pastry layered in a sugary crust, yum!  Get your pastries for take-home or enjoy it at Layered with a hearty cup of Counter Culture coffee and you’ll be in sweet and flaky heaven!

Lemon meringue cruffin at Layered Croissanterie - nctriangledining.com
Lemon meringue cruffin at Layered Croissanterie – nctriangledining.com

I had a chance to chat with Layered Croissanterie’s owners, Mark and Kawsar to learn more about their business and pastries. A very cool and hip couple, Layered Croissanterie is their first food-retail bakery experience and their baking talents were honed over 10 years as a hobby. Head baker Kawsar, was a school-teacher in her prior life and has been baking for friends and family before channeling her skills into Layered Croissanterie.

Croissant display at Layered Croissanterie - nctriangledining.com
Croissant display at Layered Croissanterie – nctriangledining.com

They are usually up and working on pastries at 3 to 4 am given the 3-day process to make the croissants (make dough, shape dough, proof and bake). Wondering how they get those wonderful layers? Butter is laminated/layered on the dough, folded over three times and then folded several more times resulting in anywhere from 9 to 12 layers of flaky goodness, very time intensive.

Breakfast hash danish at Layered Croissanterie - nctriangledining.com
Margherita and Reuben croissants at Layered Croissanterie – nctriangledining.com
Breakfast hash danish at Layered Croissanterie - nctriangledining.com
Breakfast hash danish at Layered Croissanterie – nctriangledining.com

And there will be more seasonal/international flavors over time, a savory spinach-bechamel croissiant (the Popeye) is the latest addition to the Layered Croissanterie menu! All I can say is that I’m excited to have this new pastry shop in Raleigh (and so close to home) but I’m pretty sure my waistline will be bearing the brunt of their deliciousness. So welcome to the neighborhood, Layered Croissanterie. Can’t wait to see what comes out of your ovens over the rest of 2019!

Layered Croissanterie

911 N West Street, Suite 107

Raleigh, NC 27603

984.200.1200

 

Location on Google maps

Filed Under: Featured, Raleigh, Restaurant & Bar Reviews Tagged With: Bakery, Coffee-Tea

April 7, 2019 by Ron Wen

Media: Annelore’s German Bakery, an Authentic Taste of Germany in Cary

Annelore's Germany Bakery, Cary - nctriangledining.com
Annelore’s Germany Bakery, Cary – nctriangledining.com

When it comes to bakeries, I try to avoid them to limit my sweets intake but every now and then, it’s a wonderful and special treat. Whether you’re talking about Guglhupf, La Farm Bakery or lucettegrace, I’m always tempted to order the entire counter! And a new bakery that’s been around forever has arrived on the scene for sweets: Annelore’s German Bakery! The name probably sounds familiar to you if you’ve been to local farmers markets. I remember running into Annelore’s at the NC State Farmer’s market many times over the years. They always had a stand next to Bee Blessed Honey and the flower vendors at the front of the farmer’s market. So I was really happy to get an invite to their local media event (Kaffee & Kuchen – Coffee and Cake) to check out Annelore’s new retail space in Cary!

Interior of Annelore's Germany Bakery, Cary - nctriangledining.com
Interior of Annelore’s Germany Bakery, Cary – nctriangledining.com
Pastry case at Annelore's Germany Bakery, Cary - nctriangledining.com
Pastry case at Annelore’s Germany Bakery, Cary – nctriangledining.com

Head on over Chatham Street in Cary and you’ll find Annelore’s German Bakery in a new, stand-alone building a couple of blocks down from La Farm Bakery, very cool! Inside I meet up with Annelore’s media contact, Tiffani and bump into some of the other local bloggers and news people attending the event. Even though I haven’t had a chance to visit Germany yet, I can say that Annelore’s interior design is clean and European with a large, curved display area full of bright colors and tempting sweets. There’s also a small cafe area to the side if you’d like to enjoy your coffee and sweets onsite.

For the media preview, we’ve got a beautiful display of Annelore’s baked goodies which spans a wide variety of categories, from sweet cookies and cakes to savory pretzels, breads and a lot more. I sample some of the goodies, love the classic Bee Sting cake layered with cream, honey, almonds and pastry, I remember this treat from the old NC State Farmers Market days! Some jam-filled cookies and Black Forest cake are also excellent, showing high quality ingredients without the overly sweet nature that some pastries might have. I’d describe Annelore’s pastries as your more classic European sweets without being overly complicated. Annelore’s bakes up a mean, butter spritz cookie along with a classic marzipan crescent dipped in chocolate and made of almond flour, chewy perfection!

Beautiful cakes and pastries at Annelore's Germany Bakery, Cary - nctriangledining.com
Beautiful cakes and pastries at Annelore’s Germany Bakery, Cary – nctriangledining.com

But Annelore’s German Bakery is not a one-trick pony only serving up sweets. Their large Bavarian pretzels are beautifully baked and show off a wonderfully, shiny sheen and the cheese-covered pretzels are as amazing as they sound. A row of bread loaves show off additional baking skills around multi-grain bread, purple wheat bread and more. These bread varieties are certainly different from what you usually see in the area. Ryes, purple wheat loaves and much more! I’m sure if you’re more familiar with German breads then I am, you’ll appreciate the variety turned out at Annelore’s.

Cheese and Bavarian pretzels at Annelore's Germany Bakery, Cary - nctriangledining.com
Cheese and Bavarian pretzels at Annelore’s Germany Bakery, Cary – nctriangledining.com
Breads at Annelore's Germany Bakery, Cary - nctriangledining.com
Breads at Annelore’s Germany Bakery, Cary – nctriangledining.com
Norbert and Annelore speaking at Annelore's Germany Bakery, Cary - nctriangledining.com
Norbert and Annelore speaking at Annelore’s Germany Bakery, Cary – nctriangledining.com

During the media event, owners Annelore and Norbert address the crowd and we learn more about the history of their bakery and construction of the new facility. Tours are given of the industrial kitchen which is super clean and well-organized. It’s also built super eco-friendly with an eye towards minimizing waste and energy usage. While everything inside is super-modern, it’s that old-school talent and human hands on the staff that makes their cakes and pastries so awesome. Annelore’s Bakery is definitely in a position to really increase their production volume and get their baked goods out to a wider audience beyond farmers markets, good for them!

Modern kitchen at Annelore's Germany Bakery, Cary - nctriangledining.com
Modern kitchen at Annelore’s Germany Bakery, Cary – nctriangledining.com
Working hard at Annelore's Germany Bakery, Cary - nctriangledining.com
Working hard at Annelore’s Germany Bakery, Cary – nctriangledining.com

And at the end of the event, we’re all given goodie bags filled with tasty cookies, pastries, bread and more. It’s really great to see Annelore’s Bakery all growed up! While other businesses may have had more splashy entrances, Annelore’s has been slowly building up their reputation for high quality baked goods with a German flair, customer by customer, year by year. So congratulations, Annelore’s! If you’re in the Cary area it’s certainly worth a visit for their artisanal pastries and breads from Germany. I’m sure that for many, it will be a taste of home…

 

Annelore’s German Bakery

308 W Chatham Street

Cary, NC 27511

919.267.6846

 

Location on Google maps

Filed Under: Cary, Media, Restaurant & Bar Reviews Tagged With: Bakery, German Restaurants

June 2, 2017 by Ron Wen

News: La Farm Bakery Opens Its House on June 24th in Cary!

La Farm Bakery 2017 Open House in Cary on June 24th from 3 to 5pm - Photos from La Farm Bakery
La Farm Bakery 2017 Open House in Cary on June 24th from 3 to 5pm – Photos from La Farm Bakery

When it comes to delicious baking and bread, La Farm Bakery out in Cary is an easy choice. Known for their rustic, artisan French loaves, I’ve always been a huge fan of their bread and pastries over the years. But thankfully for my waist-line, they remain safely out of arm’s reach in central Cary. But if you are a fan of La Farm Bakery, you don’t want to miss their upcoming open house on Saturday, June 24th from 3 to 5pm. As part of the 5th annual Bread Bakers Guild of America open houses, you’ll get a behind the scenes tour of La Farm, sample delicious breads and take home one of their dee-licious white chocolate mini baguettes! And yes, it’s all for free my bread-loving friend.

You’ll get a chance to see this lovely bakery in action with a bread-shaping demo and loading the hearth oven. And master baker-owner Lionel Vatinet will be on-hand for the celebration! I had the chance to take a pastry baking class at La Farm Bakery with Lionel and I can tell you for certain that he is a funny and talented man. So how can you pass up an opportunity like this? If you’d like to join in on the baking fun and eat, please RSVP with an email to [email protected]  And if I don’t make it there on Saturday, grab a white chocolate baguette for me!

La Farm Bakery

2017 Bakery Open House for the Break Bakers Guild of America

4248 NW Cary Parkway

Cary, NC 27513

June 24th from 3 to 5pm

 

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Filed Under: Cary, News-Upcoming Tagged With: Bakery

September 1, 2016 by Ron Wen 1 Comment

First Take: Nothing Bundt Cakes, a Sweet Escape…

Storefront for Nothing Bundt Cakes in Morrisville- NC Triangle Dining
Storefront for Nothing Bundt Cakes in Morrisville- NC Triangle Dining

As much as I can be a bit of a piggy when it comes to savory eats, thankfully I don’t have a super-strong sweet tooth! But every now and then, the temptation for sweets strike and it’s time to grab a cupcake or splurge at fave lucettegrace. And while cupcakes and pastries are great, what about bundt cakes? Yeah, I know they haven’t been that popular or trendy recently but eventually all the 5-star online reviews for Nothing Bundt Cakes caught my eye.

Counter at Nothing Bundt Cakes in Morrisville- NC Triangle Dining
Counter at Nothing Bundt Cakes in Morrisville- NC Triangle Dining

(Note: Nothing Bundt Cakes has two new locations in Durham and Morrisville) Located in the Park West Village plaza across from Goodybox Cupcakes, Nothing Bundt Cakes presents a pretty innocuous front face. Inside the space is small and tidy with a glass case of full-size bundt cakes, bundlets (single-serving) and bundtinis (bite-size). There are about 10 different flavors for sale today ranging from red velvet, lemon, chocolate-chocolate, white chocolate raspberry and more. At $3.99 per bundtlet, it’s certainly not cheap but right in line with cupcake prices in the area. I order up 5 different bundtlets with my GroupOn and service is quite good for this quick transaction.

Bundtlet options for Nothing Bundt Cakes in Morrisville- NC Triangle Dining
Bundtlet options for Nothing Bundt Cakes in Morrisville- NC Triangle Dining

Back at home I check out my sweet bundt shwag. After giving away two bundlets, there’s still plenty to eat with a lemon, red velvet and white chocolate. They are pretty sizable cakes and drizzled heavily with cream-cheese frosting so you’re best off keeping them refrigerated. Mentally I rationalize that I’m looking at “single-serving” portions so I dive right in with a spoon. Whoa, these bundt cakes are super moist and have great flavor on the cake. Adding in the soft sweet frosting takes it up another notch and before long, most of bundlet is gone. I save my other two cakes for another day and they are equally good even after 36 hours.

My sweet escape from Nothing Bundt Cakes in Morrisville- NC Triangle Dining
My sweet escape from Nothing Bundt Cakes in Morrisville- NC Triangle Dining

And while Nothing But Bundts is certainly like a cupcake on steroids due to their size, they are different. The flavor combos are a bit simpler given the standard frosting and they aren’t filled so their strengths are more about their size and wonderful cake. In the end, I would probably prefer a cupcake over bundt cakes but these sweets are pretty durn good. And if you like cream cheese frosting you’ll be in seventh heaven here! So thank you Nothing But Bundts for the sweet escape you provide me. You may be just bundts but in my world, that’s plenty good!

 

Nothing Bundt Cakes

2008 Market Center Drive

Morrisville, NC 27560

919.694.5300

 

Location on Google maps

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Filed Under: Morrisville, Restaurant & Bar Reviews Tagged With: Bakery

July 1, 2015 by Ron Wen Leave a Comment

Night Kitchen Bakehouse, Raleigh – A Modern Take on Breads and Sweets!

Front of Night Kitchen Bakehouse in Raleigh- NC Triangle Dining
Front of Night Kitchen Bakehouse in Raleigh- NC Triangle Dining

With all the new bakeries popping up in Raleigh you might miss out on Night Kitchen Bakehouse & Cafe. Which would be a shame because it’s pretty darn good. Not as fancy as lucettegrace but good in its own way!

Counter at Night Kitchen Bakehouse in Raleigh- NC Triangle Dining
Counter at Night Kitchen Bakehouse in Raleigh- NC Triangle Dining

Located in Seaboard Station around the corner from J. Betski’s, Night Kitchen Bakehouse is pretty unassuming up front. Inside the space opens up quite a bit, communal table in the middle a nice counter in back with the pastries along with a bread display. While Yellow Dog around the corner focuses on da bread, I feel that Night Kitchen skews more towards the pastries which is fine by me!

Pastries at Night Kitchen Bakehouse in Raleigh- NC Triangle Dining
Pastries at Night Kitchen Bakehouse in Raleigh- NC Triangle Dining
Bostok pastry at Night Kitchen Bakehouse in Raleigh- NC Triangle Dining
Bostok pastry at Night Kitchen Bakehouse in Raleigh- NC Triangle Dining

I ask the nice lady up front for a recommendation and I end up getting a bostok pastry and coffee. The bostok is a sweetened bread covered with almonds and a dusting of confectionary sugar. And it is GOOD!  Just the right amount of sweet and butter, paired up with my coffee I was a happy boy. I enjoyed my first visit to Night Kitchen and think they’ll do well as long as they can get the word out. With a nice selection of tasty sweets, savory breads and more, they should be popular and have the space to take advantage of a bigger crowd. Rock on, Night Kitchen!

 

Night Kitchen Bakehouse & Cafe

10 W Franklin Street #140

Raleigh, NC 27604

984.232.8907

 

Location on Google mapsRating

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Filed Under: Raleigh, Restaurant & Bar Reviews Tagged With: Bakery

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