Crunching through the last autumn leaves and a pretty pastry picnic.
Our experience
As we end this last month of glorious autumn in NYC with a review of another bakery, you may be wondering what distinguishes this particular bakery from the one we just reviewed or the countless others in NYC. Well…with three branches in the Upper East Side and one in Park Slope, Julien Bakery is our favourite bakery to stop by to pick up picnic provisions before wandering into Central Park and Prospect Park respectively to watch the last of the autumn leaves fall! 🙂
For savouries, we love Julien’s croque monsieur and its quiches. But being the dessert addicts that we are, we of course love its pastries. 😛 The pastries here are crispier and crunchier than most you will find in the city, and also don’t have that slightly oily buttery residue. A perfect picnic accompaniment after crunching through the last autumn leaves in Central Park or Prospect Park, yes? 🙂 The Kouign Amann has a silver of roasted apples at its centre, and the Chocolate Croissant features a beautiful latticed laminate surface. Resembling puffy golden-brown clouds, pistachio and pumpkin cream are swirled within each of the Twists. Our hearts belong most to Julien’s tarts. The shell of each tart is more similar in texture to a croissant pastry, rather than the shortcrust that is typically used for pie shells. The Lemon Raspberry Tart is our absolute favourite, tangy citrus curd embellished with raspberries and meringue droplets. And the Chocolate Parisian Flan…if Petit Chou does our favourite vanilla custard flan, Julien bakes the most decadent chocolate counterpart.
Our verdict
There are as many bakeries in NYC as there are stars in the sky. There are the Italian bakeries of Cobble Hill, the Chinese bakeries in Chinatown, and bakeries where we visit for specific pastries such as for cardamom buns, cream buns, cream puffs, babka, or pies. And then there are bakeries that require many repeated visits because of their extensive array of goodies — our local favourite Mia’s, the dessert-leaning Petit Chou, the pastry hybrid inventions from Dominique Ansel Workshop and Supermoon Bakehouse, and now Julien. If this festive season brings you to New York, hit up Angelina while near Times Square, and Julien near Central Park or Prospect Park.
Dessert adventure checklist
- ☑ Dessert destination: Julien Bakery, four locations in the Upper East Side, and one in Park Slope.
- ☑ Budget: $$.
- ☑ Sweet irresistibles: Pastries that crunch.
- ☑ Must-eat: The Raspberry Lemon Tart and Chocolate Parisian Flan Tart.
- ☑ The short and sweet story: Crunching through the last autumn leaves and pretty pastry picnic.
Dessert Correspondents 