Bouchon Bakery

[Dryden]

According to a helpful security guard, they are supposed to be opening this coming Monday. It's a very small space (you can see around the paper up on the glass) - basically room for a couple of coffee machines and an prepared food case - given the space, I seriously doubt that they're going to be making anything to order.

There is also a space with seats and a coffee machine on the third floor for people who want sit-down service.

[alanamoana]

don't underestimate tk...

most of the pre-made items will be using per se's kitchen.

tons of employees, just like per se!

[Dryden]

I would imagine all of the pre-made items will be done using Per Se's kitchen. But I doubt they'll be able to do much to accomodate on-the-fly requests, just as a function of how they're set up.

[Megan Blocker]

Oooooh, yay - can't wait to brave the mall-like confines of the TWC to check this out.

[Trishiad]

The Yountville Bouchon Bakery doesn't do anything made-to-order. They have a very small space filled with pastries, tarts, cookies, bread, and 2 or 3 sandwiches which they will grill on the panini thingy if you ask.

We drive the hour every other month or so, four year old's fav.

mmmm brioche with cashew butter and jam

[bigorre]

Bouchon is indeed opening soon...very soon... last monday and tuesday was staff on staff.....and please do not under estimate TK !!! there is a a kitchen for bouchon.....and lotta staff and a beautiful room!

[IML]

Bouchon was open tonight on a limited-scale test run for friends and family of the restaurant, and will not fully open to the public for at least another week, maybe week and a half.

il

[Luckylies]

I was told the 13th.

[tcavallo]

I must say Bouchon in Vegas truly disappointed me with their brunch... timing was all off (why bring me my pastry but make me wait 10 more minutes for my coffee? all while my brother has nearly finished his fruit and yogurt, which was supposed to be his main course) and the fries with my "Breakfast Americain" were cold and stiff. I have yet to convince someone to take me to Per Se, so I haven't had the full Keller experience, and I have read so much good press on Bouchon (even Tony liked it!) that I am eager to give them a second chance in nyc.

Oh, the aforementioned pastry was the best pain au chocolat I have ever eaten, which is another reason I want to see if they can come through with the whole experience next time.

[Dryden]

There is no Bouchon in New York - the place that is opening is Bouchon Bakery which, as related upthread, looks like it will be doing sandwiches and pastry, but not the full Bouchon menu and nothing that seems like it will be doing brunch.

Which is a shame, since Bouchon would be the best thing to happen to that part of the west side in terms of mid-priced casual dining, well, ever.

[adamru]

It's open, as everyone who got DailyCandy today knows. But despite that hype it wasn't too overwhelmed at lunchtime today. At 1pm the seating area where you're served had no line but it was completely full and the line was steady but short and fast moving for orders to go. There are about eight sandwiches to pick from, the cashew butter and jam which they pressed looked incredible, but I just bought a few danishes to go, sweet cheese, seasonal fruit, and an almond croissant which is filled with jam. The latter being a new take on one of my favorite pastries that I'll be sure to revisit. The danishes are about $3 each and the sandwiches all about $7. The pastries are put in bags, then laid out on a silver tray which they bring to the counter, it's a nice touch. Everyone was very friendly and unstressed.

[Brad K.]

I had lunch at the take-out today. Roast beef sandwich is a real winner (not cheap at $9.50, but worth it). The beef itself was wonderful (not sure why it tasted so good) and had carmelized onions, mayo and a few slices of excellent fontina cheese. The roll it was on was superb too. Also had a chocolate bouchon - mmmm - the recipe is in the book, now I might need to make it.

[Megan Blocker]

I'll definitely be checking this out the next time I have a weekday off...I can't stomach TWC on a weekend, but you can bet your butt I'll be stopping in for breakfast one morning soon. Opens at 7, right?

[Dryden]

I believe their hours are 11-6 this week, and then expanding... you can call the Per Se res line for info (I'd call later in the day to avoid the wait...)

[gps-shag]

Someone post pictures - please! I'm dying here!

[Brad K.]

I believe their hours are 11-6 this week, and then expanding...  you can call the Per Se res line for info (I'd call later in the day to avoid the wait...)

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Actually the hours are 11:30AM - 3PM (for now) according to the manager.

[Dryden]

I believe their hours are 11-6 this week, and then expanding...  you can call the Per Se res line for info (I'd call later in the day to avoid the wait...)

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Actually the hours are 11:30AM - 3PM (for now) according to the manager.

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I think those are just the sit-down hours, since they were definitely open until 6 on Monday.

[iheartoffal]

Stopped in for an early dinner/late lunch/horrifyingly late breakfast this afternoon. Had a nice marinated-grilled vegetable sandwich...they weren't able to heat it up in the press for some reason, but it was still quite good served chilled. Very fresh and flavorful. I also had the richest chocolate tart...ever. I've since had a hard time negotiating the whole standing-up process. It was that rich.

[Bobbo]

Stopped by for lunch on Saturday expecting madness and long lines but was surprised that service was fairly quick. Roast beef and ham n cheese sandwich were delicious yet small for the price. The chocolate tart is really rich. Look forward to next time sitting down at the tables that have service and I believe wine.

[IML]

gps-shag: You're not missing out on much here. The pastry is well-executed, but lacks true character. The Bouchon brand operates at a level just above, say, Payard, and at a price-point that reaffirms my commitment to Claude. Photos would show exactly what you are probably imagining. Keller's gone corporate, and I wish him well. He deserves to profit as much as anybody.

il

[Todd36]

Grabbed a table at the take out area on Saturday. Chicken soup with herb dumplings was OK, but not special. A bit expensive at $8.95. Roast beef sandwich was OK, worse than the soup, had a sandwich (Sopressa) same night from Parisi that was ten times better at 25% the price per pound. Danish of the day, apricot with pistacho was OK, but not a big success. Pan au chocolate was first rate, one of the better ones in NY, but not as good as what Petrossian used to make. Overall, it's fine if you are in Time Warner, but not worth a big trip. Of course, I was underwhelmed by Per Se.....

[Daniel]

Walked by tonight to look at the place.. It was closed, so I didnt get anything.. If I didnt know Keller, I would have thought it was an Au Ban Pan or whatever you call them..

Todd,

Good call on the Parisi.. One of the better sandwiches going..

IML,

I agree with what you say on Keller going corporate, but unfortunately, his name doesnt sell like a celebrity.. He might be the best Chef in America, but he is only appreciated in foody circles.. A guy that says bam, or some spikey haired pint sized Arnold Shwartznigger, draws the crowds..

I am going to draw from the only thing I know, to make this comparison.. Keller is like the FAO Shwartz of the food world... Nobody outside Fao's Flagship store in New York, is willing to pay heafty prices for the same product.. It might work in New York because FAO has the Big Nutcracker Statue, or the elevators, or the huge space.. But when they tried the same outlay in smaller spaces in stripmalls through out the country, no one knew that they should have been paying more for the same product.. Keller isnt going to impress anyone with his name.. So sure, it might work in Time Warner, with a captive audience spending vacation money, or everyday upper middle class wastefulness.. But even if it does work in the Time Warner with the high rents while not pushing a catchy concept, it doesnt have the legs to go National..

I am all for going corporate or "selling out", because I believe, people really want a good product.. Thomas Keller, is a genius and has a lot to offer the world besides the elite few that afford his restaurants.. The question is always, can the genius relate to the masses..

One more thing: The French Laundry or Per Se is impossible to get into.. There are seceret numbers, month waiting lists.. You pretty much need to give a sample of your DNA to spend 500 bucks at this guys place.. But, In Las Vegas,tourist capital of the world, on the same night there is a three hour wait at P.F Changs, or the Cheesecake Factory, I could walk in to his lower costing restaurant Bouchon, and get a table.. I mean, that sort of huge divide cant be denied..

Edited March 28, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[ckkgourmet]

I have eaten at Bouchon twice in the last few days. I was inspired to try Bouchon because I had an excellent meal (no surprise) last week at the French Laundry during a trip to the Bay Area. Last week's meal was itself inspired by two very fine meals at Per Se last Fall.

Perhaps naively, I went thinking that any place with Thomas Keller's name associated with it must be amazing, setting entirely new standards of craft in the field of baking. Indeed, I had had an image of a new bakery that would rise to new, stellar heights of perfection, reforming my entire image of bread and pastry, and thus changing the entire NY bakery universe. What I found was certainly very good, but not the uber-bakery-lunch spot that I had imagined. Having tasted the reality, I would say that the nature of the product and even the range of selections makes Bouchon something like the well-heeled version of 'witchcraft. Putting my dreams aside, I realize that this is probably what Keller intended.

My first meal was lunch. I had the chicken soup with herbal dumplings. The broth and dumplings were both good, the chicken just a little tough. It was served convincingly hot, which was extremely satisfying. The chicken soup comes with an excellent roll with butter. For desert I tried the coffee cake, which held out promise, so to speak, but was veering sligtly towards stale. I sat at a communcal table and service was satisfying.

My second meal was an evening snack. I had the roast beef sandwhich which was warmed in their press. It was very nice. I tried several pastries. The millefeuille creme was far too sweet. The pastry itself was fine. A chocolate eclaire was, again, too sweet, and a little stale (forgivable perhaps at about 6pm). The chocolate struck me as too mild too. A chocolate macaroon was, typically, stale. In retrospect, I don't know why I ordered it knowing what might happen. The best thing about the meal was the package of shortbread that they sell at the registers. This shortbread, I was informed, is the same that is given to diners at the French Laundry when they are done dining. The shortbread is fully worthy if none of the other pastries are.

[ulterior epicure]

... I've posted the following on the Weekend in SF/Napa Valley thread from the California forum. I thought that my inquiry would be pertinent to post here as well:

"Ling and hhlodesign!

Thanks for the continued posting! All very great!

Ling, I couldn't help but notice from your pictures that Bouchon Bakery sells macarons. Did you happen to try any? The reason I ask is because I was recently at Per Se where they gave each of the diners a little package of house-made macarons.

I'll admit that I didn't eat them that same day (couldn't stomach it after such a large meal), and in fact waited quite a many days. When I did eat them, I noticed that they were much more "dense" than the macarons I've had in France and the rest of Europe. By dense I mean to say that they had much courser and larger bits of almond (?) in the almond flour than the "crispier" almost-meringue-like ones in Europe.

It seems that macarons can vary greatly (boy, I guess that was an understatement). However, I find them best in bakeries and not in restaurants, which is why I ask how the Bouchon Bakery version might compare.

[Just as a note: For example, the ones I recently had at Jean Georges in New York were mini button macarons that were unpleasantly hard as marbles. As too were the slightly larger coffee macarons ones I had at 3-star Hof van Cleve in Belgium. Bar none, the best restaurant macarons I have had were at 2-star Mosconi in Luxembourg, where on both visits, Madame Mosconi stuffed generously large and ethereally light, airy and crisp - yet impossibly tender - chocolate macarons to me as I left. The ganache being at once a part of the macaron halves as much having their own distict ooey-gooey wonderfulness quite apart from the meringue-y biscuits.]"

[Ling]

I'll definitely be checking this out the next time I have a weekday off...I can't stomach TWC on a weekend, but you can bet your butt I'll be stopping in for breakfast one morning soon.  Opens at 7, right?

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GET THE TWICE-BAKED ALMOND CROISSANT!!!

I've had a variety of pastries from the Yountville location and they were all good, very good, or excellent. Nothing was stale. The twice-baked almond croissant was definitely the best of the six or so pastries I've tried. My least favourite was the sticky bun. It was good, but nothing special.