NYC Wandering-To Cronut or Not?

Dark chocolate, champagne, and gold dust. These are the seasonal and festive ingredients for December’s “Cronut.”

I had never heard of the “Cronut” and maybe you haven’t either.  But judging from the size of the line in front of this little unassuming bakery in SoHo, NYC, this “little slice of heaven” must be worth the wait.

It is not strange to see lines in NYC: New Yorkers are great at waiting in lines for busses, museums, and movies, but Saturday mornings in SoHO are usually quiet, stores and galleries opening around 11AM.

I hopped off the Bolt Bus from Philly on a bland corner of Sixth Ave. in TriBeCa. Later I’d be traveling to Macy’s Downtown Brooklyn for my face-painting job, but now, it was time to explore.

I meandered meditatively on mostly silent brick-lined streets, a few merchants setting up their wares in front of cast iron buildings. Later, holiday shoppers would fill up these narrow streets.

And then I saw the line.

So, of course, I got on the end

And that’s where I got my introduction to the “Cronut,” described as a “croissant-doughnut hybrid, ” which takes almost three days for full preparation.  Pastry chef Dominique Ansel started selling his trademarked yummy treat in May 2013, with a monthly flavor. For the opening months they had rose vanilla, lemon maple, and blackberry lime.

But for December, they brought in the chocolate (66% dark), the champagne, and the gold dust.

Which explains why this line was still going strong on a Saturday morning just before 10AM.  The line begins more than two hours before the bakery’s scheduled opening 8AM M-F, 9AM Sun) and there is no indication that this craze or faze or obsession is slowing down.

Maybe these pastries are just darn delicious.  At $5.00 each (plus tax), they must be.

But there were rules: rules about the line and rules about how to eat them, all neatly displayed on a sign at the front of the line. I had never seen so many rules for a bakery.  I was reminded of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. Now, I really wanted to try one. The suspense was profound. And I had become part of a group, a happening, a movement!!

I could taste the chocolate swirling around on my tongue, the champagne warming me instantly.

While I was chatting with my line mates, my new life long friends, someone from the shop came out to make the dreaded announcement that they’d soon be running out of the coveted product for probably the last half of the line. There were groans of disappointment, including my own, when I realized I wouldn’t have a chance to sample this delight that day.

At last count there are 22 more days in December- that means 22 more days to attempt to fill my mouth with this heavenly concoction… that’s until the new flavor for January is unveiled. What could it be?? I’ll keep you posted.

Dominique Ansel Bakery

189 Spring Street

212-219-2773

http://dominiqueansel.com/