La Boulangerie

What's it like?

My first experience with La Boulangerie was at the rehearsal dinner for my wedding; one of our friends brought several fruit tarts from the bakery. I nearly ate the box.

Fast forward a few years, and I'm now in an office that's within 100 steps of "La Bou" (that's what an office mate insists on calling the place), so I decided to join a couple of others for lunch. We walked in just before the rest of the lunch crowd— they get pretty busy.

When I'm in a new restaurant, standing in line to order, and there's a long queue waiting on me to decide, I freeze. "Oh, the Monte Cristo sounds good, I'll go with that." Unfortunately, I'm informed, the Monte Cristos are prepared in the morning, and are not offered without mayonnaise.

Fail.

Now the pressure's on. Scared of what's on the other sandwiches, I panicked and ordered a quiche. (Who orders quiche for a take-out lunch?) To be fair, it was good quiche, and it came with a salad so I felt healthy afterwards, but the inability to order a sandwich without mayo left a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended).

Realizing that the deli/lunch area is separate from the bakery, I ventured back over last night to shop for a dinner party dessert. The tarts I remembered were almost wiped out, as was much of their selection. The final decision was between a cheesecake topped with strawberries, kiwi, berries, whipped cream and more goodness, and a rich chocolate cake topped with raspberry jelly and fresh raspberries. I've had cheesecake recently, so I went with the cake. It. was. delicious.

With all of the other choices for lunch around here, I'm not sure I'll give them another shot, but I will give them credit for having such an unbelievable bakery. The chocolate cake was more like a tort—very dense, a bit bittersweet, and worth fighting over. Be warned, though: it's a dessert that warrants moderation, lest you find yourself comatose.