Mabel Suen
La Patisserie Chouquette's Darkness is a love song to dark chocolate.
On a list of butter’s best uses, there’s no question that laminated dough would be near the top. A painstaking process that results in a decadent, flaky layers, the technique dazzles in its most beloved form: the croissant. These five, produced by masters of their craft, are the embodiment of pastry perfection.
The Darkness: La Patisserie Chouquette
It’s been eight years since La Patisserie Chouquette (1626 Tower Grove Avenue, 314-932-7935) owner Simone Faure rolled out the Darkness, a love song to dark chocolate she once described as a “pain in the ass” to make. Difficult as it may be, the result of her efforts is a deeply chocolaty creation different from other chocolate croissants in that the dough itself is made with dark chocolate. So is the butter. It’s an absolute masterpiece.
Salted Caramel Croissant: Pint Size Bakery
If you blink, you might miss your chance to witness what might be the best pastry in St. Louis: Pint Size Bakery’s (3133 Watson Road, 314-645-7142) salted caramel croissant. Available only on Saturdays, this slightly sweet, kouign amann-adjacent butter sponge comes out of the oven at 9:30 a.m. and sells out not too long after that, even with a limit of two.
Comet Croissant: Comet Coffee
Pastry chef Stephanie Fischer and her partner, Mark Attwood, may have opened Comet Coffee (multiple locations including 5708 Oakland Avenue, 314-932-7770) in order to bring more specialty coffee to St. Louis, but they ended up giving us what might be the area’s most quintessential version of the croissant. Flaky, buttery, compact in shape and that perfect golden color, this is what comes to mind when you dream of a Parisian patisserie.
Chocolate Croissant: Nathaniel Reid Bakery
Owner Nathaniel Reid has taught French chefs in France how to make pastries. What more do you need to know to understand that the chocolate croissant he serves at his Kirkwood shop, Nathaniel Reid Bakery (11243 Manchester Road, Kirkwood; 314-858-1019) is the embodiment of the form.
Croissant: Mr. Meowski’s Sourdough
Baker Timothy Nordmann insists that, no matter how hard he tries, he will never make the perfect version of any pastry; this, he insists, is the nature of the craft and what animates every baker’s constant push to be better. However, when you taste his classic croissant at his St. Charles bakery Mr. Meowski’s Sourdough (107 North Main Street, St. Charles; 314-992-9234), you wonder how far off he really is.
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