Brentwood’s new sweet spot

WHILE her mother was busy dispensing napkins to the rest of the family at a picnic table in the middle of Brentwood Country Mart, the toddler climbed up on a horse and buggy. She bounced excitedly, waiting for the horsie to gallop. “Hey!” she cried, again and again, until her harried mother noticed and fed the horse ride some quarters.

We spread out our picnic lunch too, not the Reddi Chick roast chicken that has for years been feeding Brentwood kids (some of the most privileged on the planet), but gourmet fare from the long-awaited City Bakery. This New York institution has just moved into a space vast enough to house a small supermarket and is busy offering Westsiders the same baked goods and lavish salad bar as the original bakery off Union Square in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.

I recognize owner Maury Rubin’s charming individual lemon tart from a book he wrote on tarts a while back. It’s bright and lemony, with a fragile butter-shocked crust, decorated with a single pinstripe of chocolate and what looks like two tiny chocolate buttons.

Near the counter is a stash of the City Bakery’s famous pretzel croissants -- flaky and salty, dusted with sesame seeds and entirely unique. The scones studded with mixed berries are models of their genre. Cornmeal muffins dotted with blueberries are wonderful too, with a moist crumb. Morning pastries, such as the yeasty baker’s muffin with apples and raisins, are delightfully under-sweetened.

But if you want sweet, they’ve got it too, in the giant chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, and especially in the warm chocolate chip cookie, which oozes like warm fudge when you bite into one.

The salad bar is sort of misnamed -- it’s really a buffet, with everything priced at $16 per pound, which means salad fanciers get a better bargain than chowhounds who load up on fried chicken or baked salmon. Everything looks delicious: marinated Thai eggplants, jicama and mango salad, sauteed snow peas, red beet and mint salad, roasted fennel.... Oddly, though, most of it is under-seasoned and (I hate to say it) kind of bland.

It’s probably just a matter of fine-tuning the recipes. The place has just barely flung open its doors, after all, and the kitchen is not even up to full production yet. Once it is, there will be even more choices.

Servers in flat white caps are doing their best to move things along, what with all the looky-loos meandering through. Time to commit at least to a sandwich, or one of those tempting cookies. Eat lunch at the short order counter, where you can also get pressed sandwiches. Or take it all outside in the sun. Don’t forget the coffee served up in dark blue cups with white lettering.

Enjoy, with scene.

*

The City Bakery

Where: Brentwood Country Mart, 225 26th St., Brentwood

When: Open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Parking in Brentwood Country Mart lot. No alcohol.

Cost: Morning pastries, $2 to $3.50; cookies, $2.50 to $3; salad bar, $16 per pound; sandwiches, $7.50 to $10; pressed sandwiches from short order counter, $5 to $10.

Info: (310) 656-3040