A pâtissière, eating around the world
![[Paris] Verjus Sandwich Lunch](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/L1104576.jpg)
Verjus Bar à Vin Add: 47 rue Montpensier, Paris 75001 Tel: 01 42 97 54 40 Hours: 6~11pm (closed on Sat & Sun) Website: www.verjusparis.com Price: [small plates] €4~14 [wine] €6~13/glass [lunch set] €15 Visited on: Jun 2014 2015 update: please note that Verjus Bar à Vin no longer serves this lunch set, but the same fried chicken can be found at the newly opened Ellsworth. If you are not sure…Continue Reading “[Paris] Verjus Sandwich Lunch”
![[Paris] Café Marlette](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/MG_9552.jpg)
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Café Marlette
Add: 51 rue des Martyrs, 75009 Paris
Tel: 01 48 74 89 73
Hours: [Tue-Fri] 8:30am~7:30pm [Sat] 10am~7:30 [Sun] 10am~6pm
Website: www.cafemarlette.fr
Price: [coffee] €3~5 [pastries] €2~6
Visited on: Jun 2014
Marlette, a French organic bread and cake brand, opened its cafe a few months ago on rue des Martyrs, steps away from Kooka Boora and Sebastien Gaudard. Despite the heavy rain, I trekked all the way up there for my breakfast date with Carin. The cafe turned out to be cute, and the company was (as always) more than lovely, but breakfast itself, unfortunately, was rather disappointing.
I chose Le Marlette (€12.50), which includes a hot drink, orange / lemon juice, housemade compote / cottage cheese with jam, chestnut cream, or granola, and a Marlette pastry. I wouldn’t mind paying €12.50 for these if they were good, but nothing from the set really impressed. One can easily pull together something better than this at home.
![[Paris] Gâteaux Thoumieux (2)](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/R1075488.jpg)
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Gâteaux Thoumieux
Add: 58 rue Saint Dominique, 75007 Paris
Tel: +33 1 45 51 12 12
Hours: [Mon-Sat] 10am~8pm [Sun] 8:30am~5pm (closed on Tue)
Website: www.gateauxthoumieux.com
Price: €4~6/pastry
Visited on: Jun 2014
I went to Gâteaux Thoumieux when it first opened in November 2013, and wasn’t too impressed by what I tasted. It wasn’t until more than 6 months later that I went back to this pastry shop, and this time, I was pleasantly surprised by the changes that have taken place here. The prices are higher, but the pastry display was also looking a lot more attractive – seems like Jean-François Piège and his pastry chef Ludovic Chaussard have been coming up with some lovely ideas lately.
As I so rarely go to Gâteaux Thoumieux, it was very tempting to get a little bit of everything, but I managed to limit myself to just four pastries on this visit…
I started with Chou Chou Coco Passion (€4), a large chou filled with coconut cream, enveloping a mini chou filled with passion fruit compote. Lovely flavor combination, and a good balance between the sweet and the acidic.
![[Paris] Sebastien Gaudard (4)](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/R0075190.jpg)
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Sebastien Gaudard
Add: 22 rue des Martyrs, 75009 Paris
Tel: 01 71 18 24 70
Hours: [Tue-Fri] 10am~8pm [Sat] 9am~8pm [Sun] 9am~7pm
Website: www.sebastiengaudard.fr
Price: €4~6/pastry
Tasted on: Jun 2014
To compensate for a rather disappointing breakfast at Cafe Marlette (more on this later in a separate post), Carin and I strolled along rue des Martyrs to Sebastien Gaudard for some sweet pick-me-ups. For previous posts on this cute pastry shop (which has one of my favorite lemon tarts in Paris), see here, here, and here.
For those who wish to take photos in the shop, do note that only 2 photos are allowed per person. Ahem, yes, they are actually that strict about it. On another note, special thanks to Carin for lending me her camera for the morning! Can’t believe I left my battery at home, yikes.
![[Paris] Tea Time at Le Burgundy](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/L1104101.jpg)
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Le Burgundy
Add: 6 Rue Duphot, 75001 Paris
Tel: 01 42 60 34 12
Hours: [tea time] 3:30pm onwards
Website: www.leburgundy.fr
Price: €50~70/tea set, €12/individual pastry
Visited on: Jun 2014
Stéphane Tranchet of Le Burgundy Hotel may not be on the radar for many people, but this talented pastry chef is well known in the industry. I first heard about him from my chef at Un Dimanche à Paris, then subsequently from the head pastry chef at Le Meurice, both of whom highly applauded chef Tranchet’s work. He started at Pierre Gagnaire (three Michelin star restaurant in Paris) as a commis, then worked his way up to become the head pastry chef at Pierre Gagnaire’s tokyo outpost. Upon returning to Paris, he worked as sous-chef of Christophe Michalak at Plaza Athénée, then moved over to Le Burgundy as the head pastry chef. Pedigree, check.
To sample some of chef Tranchet’s work, I went to Le Burgundy on a quiet Monday for afternoon tea in their lovely courtyard.
Tea time at Le Burgundy, just like at most other hotels, comes in two options. The first is the a la carte option, where you choose individual pastries (€12 each) from the pastry trolley. Just look at this display. Wow.
Le Fraisier, strawberry pistachio cake.
Continue Reading "[Paris] Tea Time at Le Burgundy"
![[Paris] Clamato](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/L1103947.jpg)
Clamato
Add: 80, rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris
Tel: 01 43 72 74 53
Hours: [Wed-Fri] 7~11pm [Sat-Sun] nonstop service 12~11pm
Website: www.septime-charonne.fr
Price: €7~20/small plate
Visited on: Jun 2014
In Paris, it can be a struggle to find a dinner venue on Sunday nights…thankfully there’s Clamato. This oyster bar is opened by Bertrand Grébaut of Septime, which, being one of the hottest neobistros in Paris, is practically impossible to book especially after it got on Pellegrino’s list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Clamato, just next door, has a no-reservation policy, and its chill atmosphere is just what we needed on a Sunday evening.
I’m always a fan of bar seats, though the tables all the way in the back with its green backdrop look very lovely as well.
The daily-changing menu.
Monkey 47 bottle as tap water container, I like. More on this gin later.
![[Paris] Ladurée](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/L1100902.jpg)
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Ladurée
Add: 21 rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris*
Tel: 01 44 07 64 87
Hours: [Mon-Fri] 8:30am~7:30pm [Sat] 8:30am~8:30pm [Sun] 10am~7:30pm
Website: www.laduree.com
Price: [coffee/tea] €4~8 [pastries] €6~10
Visited on: May 2014
*Multiple locations in Paris and worldwide, check website for details.
You must have heard of Ladurée. The pastel-colored macarons from this luxury patisserie, having appeared in popular culture like Marie Antoinette and Gossip Girl, form many people’s imagination of French pastry. Sweet lovers from all over the world flock to Ladurée for a taste of these double deckers, and apparently Ladurée sells around 15,000 of them each day (though I’m not sure how up to date this number is and if it’s referring to its sales in Paris, France, or worldwide). While I prefer macarons from Pierre Hermé, I do also enjoy the ones from Ladurée – the texture and the flavor are both quite different, and it’s really a matter of personal preference. However, I have not actually tried of any of Ladurée’s pastries during my almost-2-year stay in Paris until just earlier this month. Why?
Simply put, I’ve heard negative reviews about Ladurée pastries from industry professionals. This may come as a surprise for many people, as Ladurée is often seen as the epitome of French pastry by the general public, but actually I know of many patissiers who don’t go to Ladurée anymore.
Having said that, one has got to tea at Ladurée at least once while living in Paris, no? So on a rainy afternoon, I sought refuge from the downpour at Ladurée’s salon de thé on rue Bonaparte with a few of my favorites.
The pastry display at Ladurée is generally quite attractive. This La Fraise Ladurée, for example, composed of light strawberry mousseline, strawberry confit, and coconut dacquoise, is definitely a cutie.
![[Paris] Pâtisserie Ciel (2)](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/R1075062.jpg)
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Pâtisserie Ciel
Add: 3 rue Monge, 75005 Paris
Tel: 01 43 29 40 78
Hours: [Tue-Thu] 11am~8pm [Fri-Sat] 11am~10pm
Website: www.patisserie-ciel.com
Price: [to go] €5~6/small cake, €18~21/medium cake, €28~32 large cake [dine in] €12/tea time set
Tasted on: May 2014
It’s been a few months since I last visited Pâtisserie Ciel, and what lured me back this time was their new cherry blossom-flavored angel cake. When I entered the shop, its tranquil atmosphere immediately reminded me of how lovely it is to spend a few moments here with a fluffy light angel cake and a pot of freshly brewed hot tea…
Here it is, the cherry blossom angel cake (€12 with tea), with bits of griotte cherries nestled inside the cream.
![[Paris] Café Smörgås](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/L1103778.jpg)
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Café Smörgås
Add: 11 Rue du Château d’Eau, 75010 Paris
Tel: 01 40 40 20 46
Hours: [Mon-Fri] 8am~4:30pm [Sat] 9am~7pm
Website: www.facebook.com/pages/Café-Smörgås
Price: [drinks] €2~3.5 [light bites] €2~5
Visited on: May 2014
Café Smörgås is a neat little cafe attached to the recently opened Scandinavian lifestyle boutique La Trésorerie. They serve, not surprisingly, smörgås – open faced sandwiches topped with a variety of fresh organic products like trout filets, avocado, pecorino, fennel salad…etc., and if Carin (who is Swedish by origin) approves of them, they must be authentic. Coffee is from La Brûlerie de Belleville and is filter only, which can be enjoyed alongside a cranberry cookie as recommended by the very friendly cafe staff.
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![[Paris] Hai Kai](https://www.sugarednspiced.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/L1103655.jpg)
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Hai Kai
Add: 104 quai de Jemmapes, 75010
Tel: 09 81 99 98 88
Hours: [Tue-Sat] 12~3pm, 7~11pm [Sun] 12~4pm (closed Sunday night and Monday)
Website: www.haikai.fr
Price: €16~35
Visited on: May 2014
Situated right along Canal St. Martin, Hai Kai is an airy space full of feminine charms. Fresh products, clean flavors, lovely service. Perfect for a light lunch.
