croissant Archives - Pechluck's Food Adventures

Nuvrei Pastries

I’ve been loving Nuvrei Patisserie & Café for several years now. I remember when they originally only had the downstairs space and going in you felt like you were making some secret kitchen deal. Then they opened up a small little patisserie and cafe upstairs that was bright with light and the smell of goodness while being super cozy – there were times I had to eat using the little counters they had on the outside hallway because there was no space in this teeny tiny adorable shop. Recently this year they opened up the MAC Bar, an additional little space specifically for ogling the beauty and putting together your fresh macaron boxes (and the upstairs Nuvrei Cafe space continues to be the devoted space for your warm beverage needs and to ogle/order the amazing baked goods).

In case you haven’t visited Nuvrei before, let me give you a little visual tour of their deliciousness. If you are thinking of bringing some wonderful treats as you travel for the holidays, or having some guests visit and are looking for a quick place to grab a bite to go and keep on (say then off to a trip to the Gorge area, or the Coast, or up to Mt Hood) I cannot recommend stopping and visiting Nuvrei enough.

Besides the various coffees and cappuccinos and lattes and Valrhona Mocha, they also have Valrhona Hot chocolate, chai, and Foxfire Teas as well.
The love from Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe in vanilla latte form and what magnificient pastry did you choose...?

I’ve written previously about their macarons, which you now can go straight downstairs to the Macaron Bar in order to get. There are seasonal flavors they change out, such as my latest visit they had chestnut and also a chai flavor.

The Macarons at the MAC Bar below Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe in the Pearl District of Portland Macarons from Nuvrei, Nuvrei Patisserie and Café

In that same post, I also loved their Fried Egg Bagel Sandwich. In another breakfast and lunch sandwich focused post, I gushed about the cheddar jalapeno bagel with cream cheese, and their bagels which uses with their homemade pretzel dough to add extra flavor and chew. I also like how they make pretzel sandwiches, such as the Pretzel with chive cream cheese and smoked wild sockeye salmon.

Fried Egg sandwich that includes fontina, tomato, frisée and dijon butter and cream cheese, Nuvrei Patisserie and Café Nuvrei Patisserie and Café breakfast sandwich pretzel bagel

You may think you are going to just take this to go to eat later, but maybe you should get 2 sandwiches – one for breakfast AND one for lunch. For instance, you can get the Salmon Bagel Sandwich with cucumber, dill, red onion, butter lettuce and choice of bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, or perhaps the Sausage Bagel sandwich with housemade sage sausage, fried egg, dijon butter, onion, brie and basil. And then for lunch, go with the Avocado Turkey or BLT.

Here’s a little bit more detail on that Avocado Turkey bagel sandwich… they have a large variety of bagels, varying from plain, onion, sesame, poppy seed, fleur de sel, everything, cheddar jalapeno, or asiago, but I personally prefer the cheddar jalapeno and everything myself. I mean look at the beauty of that cheddar jalapeno..
Details of the Avocado Turkey bagel sandwich at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe, here on a cheddar jalapeno bagel with avocado, turkey, tomato, red onion, butter lettuce, choice of bagel that is made with some homemade pretzel dough and cream cheese of course

And maybe a cookie too. Seriously, look at how packed with chocolate and walnuts their Chewy Chocolate Walnut cookies are. You can also just take home a mix and bake it yourself at home to eat, unashamed, a half dozen all by yourself.
Chewy Walnut Cookie, one of the many many delicious options at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe Seriously, look at how packed with chocolate and walnuts their Chewy Chocolate Walnut cookies are at Nuvrei Patisserie YUM, Take Home Cookie Mix of either flourless chewy chocolate cookie with walnuts or flourless double chocolate brownie from Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe

Or go a little lighter and just go with a croissant – plain buttery one is simple, but so light and buttery.
The buttery light as air croissant at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe

Or go for a flavored croissant, such as chocolate, or sesame, or sesame thyme, or almond, or chocolate almond, or walnut, or chocolate walnut, or berry croissant or seasonal fruit croissant… and save the sandwich for lunch. Let me tell you, they know what they are doing with their croissants.
Chocolate Croissant, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe Sesame Thyme Croissant, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe Almond Croissant, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe Chocolate Walnut Croissant, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe Seasonal Fruit Croissant, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe

Or go with a glistening cinnamon danish. Or scone (like these lemon poppy seed scones or blueberry blackberry scones). Nuvrei pastries are amazing, all of them.
Cinnamon Danish, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe Lemon Poppy Seed Scone, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe Blueberry Blackberry Scone, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe

Or pretzel or bacon cheddar biscuit. Or their Granola, made with Pepitas, coconut flakes, dried wild blueberries, rolled oats, Oregon honey, thin sliced almonds & a dash of cardamon, all lightly toasted (and you can get it with their yogurt and seasonal fresh fruit too).
Gruyere Pretzel, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe, and it can be made to be your bread for a sandwich Bacon Cheddar Biscuit, one of the many many delicious baked good pastries at Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe Granola, made with Pepitas, coconut flakes, dried wild blueberries, rolled oats, Oregon honey, thin sliced almonds & a dash of cardamon, all lightly toasted! At Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe

You can see the problem is I just want to eat everything in the display, and you will also have a hugely difficult time choosing just one. Which is why I say, get two!

Or, bring them home for a holiday breakfast treat for your family – you get 10% off on a box of 12 or more pastries (excluding macarons). I barely need the excuse of a family in order to get a bunch of bagels and biscuits and scones.

Nuvrei is located at 404 NW 10th Avenue – the patisserie and cafe where you can get the various pastries and coffee is up the stairs when you first walk in, while the macaron bar aka MAC Bar is down the stairs. They are open 7am – 5pm daily except Sunday where they open at 8am.

To go sandwich from Nuvrei Patisserie and Cafe

Have you ever been to Nuvrei? What did you like- macarons? Pastries? Both?

Do you have guests visiting you this holiday season that you want to spoil by upgrading their continental breakfast basket with some of these pastries? I don’t have guests and I’m still thinking of putting that kind of basket together just for myself…

Bouchon Bakery Rockefeller

As I started telling you in my previous post, I was recently in New York for a conference/training for 6 days. The first day, Saturday, was essentially a travel day. Then, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I was at the conference from 9-5, with a 1 hour lunch break from 12:20-1:30. That limited my comfort level of where I would be able to go to lunch and return in time to not miss anything at the session.

So how did I find lunches in Midtown Manhattan?

One way to do this is to first, search your current location on Google Maps. In my example below, my conference was at the Sofitel New York (I stayed at a separate hotel to save money for my company). Then, when you click on the location, click the link for Search Nearby, which will expand this menu to include a field to use.
First, search for your location (in this case, Sofitel was my conference hotel). Then I clicked on Search Nearby link, which opened a section below for me to use keywords to search around the area

You can use this field to search for what you need- happy hour, lunch, pizza, bagel, tacos, etc.

This usually is what I do when I travel for work, but since I was in Manhattan there are lots of little dots that pop up of places to eat (this isn’t true of many other places I ended up going). So what now?
Searching for restaurant lunch options by Midtown Manhattan from my Sofitel Hotel in New York City

Fortunately, because New York is such a foodie town, I did a search of “Best lunch in Midtown Manhattan” and got several website articles to peruse. Usually, in smaller towns, I might only find a link to some old Chowhound board discussions, but that has also paid off to read and pick something out that sounds appealing. I picked the Serious Eats guide of “Where to Eat Near Rockefeller Center” as a reliable source, and combined this with other things I remember reading or being recommended.

For instance, that Bouchon Bakery has been on several lists for their grilled cheese sandwich- I had once upon a time pinned the list from Food and Wine for Best Grilled Cheese in the US and Bouchon’s was on it, as was it on the Serious Eats New York 17 Great Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. The name Thomas Keller also means something to me- the lunch I had at French Laundry quite a few years ago is still very memorable to me.
Bouchon Bakery in New York City, right by Rockefeller Plaza

So this was my first lunch for the trip. It was so crowded at Bouchon Bakery Rockefeller that a group of ladies was braving sitting outside on their patio, but the crowd comes and goes. I awkwardly put my bag and coat down by a stool I saw by the corner between 2 groups after putting in my order, but when the order actually came up, there was a huge section of countertop that had opened up with seats. People here tend not to linger long.

Bouchon Bakery in New York City, right by Rockefeller Plaza Bouchon Bakery- example of offerings

The Bouchon Baker Rockefeller menu (which is annoyingly not on their site but you can get a gist at UrbanSpoon or the New York Mag for a menu) are light lunches of sandwiches, salads, cheese plates, soup, and of course their fabulous baked goods of macaroons and cookies as well as others like croissants, scones, etc. Below, the Smoked Salmon with herbed cream cheese, pickled red onion, and peppercress on brioche and the Roasted Sweet Potato on almond focaccia with brown butter aioli sounded tempting too.

Not so much the dog biscuits admittedly, which by the way are enriched with foie gras and chicken stock. One story goes that the dog treats came about because the Bouchon Kitchen in Yountville always had leftover random pieces of fois gras scraps so they used it this way so they wouldn’t go to waste and were still enjoyed.
Bouchon Bakery- example of offerings

I came to Bouchon Bakery twice. The first time was exactly for that grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup. It is not just a plain grilled cheese or plain tomato soup, of course- it’s a san marzano tomato soup that is tangy and intensely tomato-y, perfect for a dip here or there with the gooey fontina & gruyère cheese sandwich whose thick pain au lait (milk bread) manages to be both crusty on the outside but soft and doughy buttery richness inside.
Bouchon Bakery San Marzano Tomato Soup, perfect with their pain au lait grilled fontina and gruyere cheese sandwich Bouchon Bakerypain au lait grilled fontina and gruyere cheese sandwich is perfectly crispy on the outside but soft doughy rich butteryness on the inside

On my second visit, I had decided to eat leftovers from previous meals, and brought that from the hotel. However, I still used my lunch stipend to get a few treats to keep me sugared up on the plane (this would pay off since my flight would be delayed and I wouldn’t reach home until 4am NY time or 1am PDX time!). These treats kept me in a good mood, instead of a bad hungry mood. These included a croissant, the Tko Thomas Keller Oreo, the Nutter Butter cookie, and the TLC (The Laura Cunningham) Oatmeal Cookie. She didn’t like dried fruits and picked them out of typical oatmeal raisin cookies, which I totally agree with, so this cookie substitutes pecans for raisins! After the Nutter Butter the TLC was my favorite cookie.

Bouchon Bakery croissant Bouchon Bakery Tko Thomas Keller Oreo Bouchon Bakery Pistachio Macaroon Bouchon Bakery Nutter Butter cookie Bouchon Bakery Oatmeal cookie