I heard the murmurs about Bakery Nouveau bubbling around for awhile, things like "the guy who runs it won, like, the gold medal of baking" and "the pastries are better than sex, crack, or chocolate" (after which I immediately thought, "But what if there's chocolate in the pastry?"). However, It takes no convincing whatsoever to get me into a bakery, so promises of one-upping hard drugs weren't necessary, in this case.
The bakery itself is pretty no-frills, which I like--too much fancy-schmanciness in a bakery is a red flag for me. It's like trying to cover up a so-so cake with globs of gaudy frosting--totally unnecessary. If the cake is good, it will sing with a judicious smear of simple buttercream, and if a cake is bad, no amounts of rainbow-flecked fudge-swirled goo can save it.
At Bakery Nouveau, the product sings without needing much adornment. Rustic baskets of ficelle and baguette stacked along the wall are the culprits behind the enveloping, yeasty warm cloud you swear you could almost reach out and touch. The glass cases are full of gem-like chocolates and cakes and pastries and even wedges of quiche or pizza. It's heavenly, and very European-feeling.
Here's what I had:
The CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE (consumed immediately; is that some sort of sin, at 10 am on a Sunday?) is delicious, although a much creamier style of cheesecake than I am wont to choose--I prefer a denser, New York style. However, the chocolate flavor was true and rich, and the crumbly cookie crust had the most intriguing hint of salt that really balanced the sweetness.
The CROISSANT is perfect. It is a perfect, perfect croissant. In my mind, a croissant should be heavily perfumed with butter--you really should be able to smell the butteriness when you pick one up. The outer layers should be light, papery, flaky. It should have a fragile crunch when you bite into it. When you bite into it, the croissant should then give way to tender, slightly chewy layers that melt on your tongue, but are in no way greasy. The mouthfeel should be light, not oily. Bakery Nouveau's croissant is and does all of these things. It is perfect.
The TWICE-BAKED ALMOND CROISSANT was, in short, freaking FANTASTIC. Here's what they do: they take one of their normal croissants, slice it open, smear it with butter and sugar and almonds, seal it up, sprinkle more buttery sugary nutty goodness on top, and then rebake it. And then they give it a nice blanket of confectioners' sugar, just for fun. The result is this crisp, chewy, tender, buttery, sugary, nutty, unbelievable creation that certainly must incur some amount of arterial damage, but it's definitely the worthwhile kind. This croissant is one of those things that you'll remember, so very vividly, long after you've eaten it--even if you just had it once.
The BAGUETTE was wonderful. Perfect thickness of crust (not teeth-shatteringly crunchy), heady yeasty flavor and aroma, a moist and light and chewy crumb. A lump of Plugra smeared on its insides is all the adornment a fine baguette like this needs--using it for a sandwich or other some such construction would be good, I'm sure, but something so simply good is best simply enjoyed.
The MACARONS weren't the best I've had (Le Panier's are perfect)--the almond meal in them was a bit gritty, the texture a bit dense, and the buttercream was a little too subtle in its flavoring. They were fine macarons in their own right, but I've had better.
The CHOCOLATES are top-notch, with all those interesting flavors like salted caramel, etc. that are tres chic in the chocolate world. They were nice, but I can't say they've stood out in my memory.
Bakery Nouveau is the real-deal, one of the best bakeries in Seattle. Only gripe is that it's all the way in West Seattle. C'mon, I'm a carless Capitol Hill girl!
As other reviewers noted, the lines are long--especially if you go on a weekend morning. Hel-lo. That's prime time for the well-heeled pastry vultures to swoop in and clean out everything in sight. So come prepared. read more