Boulangeries Give New York the Flavors of Paris

Campanile just wouldn’t be Campanile without the handcrafted breads from La Brea Bakery next door. Not only does the minuscule storefront (with wholesale bakery situated elsewhere) provide the restaurant with wonderfully distinctive breads and rolls, it also furnishes walk-in customers with morning pastries now that the restaurant is closed for breakfast on weekdays.

Restaurants cum bakeries are all the rage in New York with the opening of Bouley Bakery in TriBeCa and Balthazar and Balthazar Boulangerie in SoHo.

After closing his signature restaurant, Bouley, in 1996, David Bouley took a year off to travel and plan his next series of high-profile ventures (an Austrian restaurant called Danube, a two-story gourmet food emporium and cooking school, to name a few).

Meanwhile, the celebrated chef is back in the game with the opening of Bouley Bakery. Half is an upscale boulangerie with an enormous stone oven imported from France, handcrafted hardwood shelves and a gorgeous tiger maple table on wheels from which a dark-haired young woman dispenses tastes of a dozen of Bouley’s exotically flavored breads.

Next door in the small, sleek restaurant, a waiter passes by each table with a bread cart, offering to slice into any of the loaves on display. Macadamia-pistachio? Lemon rye? Apple and golden raisin? Garlic?

Sure. It’s all a bit precious. I swear a waiter murmured at one point, “May I refresh your bread plate?” However, most of the breads are too refined or strongly flavored to easily accompany food. And the food here is spectacularly good: a fava bean, haricots verts and frisee salad with pistachio dressing, a potato and cheese tart scented with marjoram, organic chicken roasted with rosemary (Bouley’s favorite herb) with a dreamy fingerling potato puree--ooh, and hot chocolate brioche pudding with chantilly cream.

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In SoHo, Keith McNally of the hip vodka-and-blini hangout Pravda has opened Balthazar, an uncannily faithful rendition of a Parisian brasserie with red Leatherette banquettes, huge old mirrors, a long zinc bar and walls that look as if generations of smokers have yellowed them. Mornings, when SoHo is largely deserted, you can find the few early-risers breakfasting on bowls of strong, frothy cafe au lait and fat, buttery croissants that shower flaky crumbs into your lap. These and the little open-face apple tarts reminiscent of Poila^ne’s in Paris come from the boulangerie next door, which looks as authentic as the brasserie. The baguettes taste like the real thing. And they make a mean jambon au beurre (ham sandwich on buttered baguette) too. The real scene at the restaurant is at night, when, of course, it’s impossible to get in and join the beautiful people eating oysters, foie gras and steak frites.

BE THERE

Bouley Bakery, 120 W. Broadway, New York; (212) 964-2525. Open seven days a week. Major credit cards accepted. Appetizers $8.50 to $14; main courses $28 to $34; prix fixe lunch $35.

Balthazar, 80 Spring St., New York; restaurant (212) 965-1414; bakery (212) 965-1785. Open seven days a week. Major credit cards accepted. Morning pastries $1.75 to $4.75; appetizers $5.25 to $7.50; main courses $16 to $23.