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Breakfast at La Boulangerie

Recently had this awesome breakfast at La Boulangerie. Their frozen hot chocolate is awesome by the way. I love the way this place has taken their time to continue to build on their offerings...

La Boulangerie to Close for Two Weeks

Stock up on those scrumptious breads, etc. while you still have time! (I've received a bunch of inquiries about this, by the way. And no, I have no idea what their new product line will be, sorry!)

Five Forest Hills Businesses That Should Expand

Red Pipe

1. Red Pipe Cafe
Forest Hills' only indie cafe is charming, delightful, delicious and cozy. And while the coziness is certainly part of its charm, a bigger space with more room to spread out wouldn't hurt one of the neighborhood's finest spots.

2. La Boulangerie
Our best bakery offers delectable eats, from sandwiches, to salads, to breads and soups. And the space, like Red Pipe, is authentic, cozy and inviting. But also usually crowded. It could easily double in size and maintain its French mystique.

3. Starbucks (71st Continental)
Why not? We're home to one of the tiniest Starbucks on Earth.

4. Mr Vino's Cucina
I recently had a sandwich from this tiny gourmet food shop on Austin St. and it was terrific—fresh and delicious. This shop has the potential to be so much more than just a gourmet food/craft beer emporium. I can see it as a sit-down lunch place with light casual top-notch sandwiches and salads, something our 'hood so desperately still needs.

5. Red Mango
See No. 3.

La Boulangerie Super Bowl Menu

Performing at Red Pipe Cafe This Wednesday

The French jazz duo Gavroche, who happen to be Forest Hills residents, will perform at our new coffee place, Red Pipe, on Austin St. Wednesday night at 8:30 (they will also be performing at La Boulangerie on Dec. 16 at 5 p.m.):

Here's a clip of them from Fête Paradiso, the Parisian festival of vintage carnival rides and carousels on Governors Island. Valentine Biollay on vocals and Coyote Anderson on guitar. http://www.valentinebiollay.com

La Boulangerie Events

And speaking of small businesses—or maybe the better term is independent businesses since La Boulangerie is always so packed with customers the word "small" just doesn't seem to fit—it was so nice to see how our finest French bakery is expanding its role in the neighborhood, hosting local events. The next one is on Tuesday, December 16:

This, my friends, is what is starting to make our neighborhood really great... I also noticed a similar poster in Red Pipe's window about some event coming up but didn't have time to stop and read it. If anyone knows what it is, please post below...

Celebrate Labor Day With La Boulangerie Crepes

If you've never had, trust me, these are awesome!

Photos of Today's The Blacklist Shoot

Among the surprises of today's shoot is that they transformed our charming French bakery La Boulangerie into some type of Russian cafe (at least I think that's what it is — I never watched the show! Let me know). Thanks very much to @coreynyc who provided some of these photos, including the Station Square ones. And he also discovered the telephone booth which looks like it may have been left behind. ( By the way, I left out the photo I took of the sleeping crewman in front of Boulangerie. Didn't want to get him in trouble. But I tell you, he was dead to the world! Must've been up quite early for the shoot. )

La Boulangerie Goes to 7 Days

Crepes Return this Weekend to La Boulangerie

Having had them a couple of times, I can attest they are quite scrumptious!

Bastille Day at La Boulangerie

La Boulangerie celebrated Bastille Day yesterday the way it does every year — by cooking up some delicious crepes outside! Yeah, it was pretty hot, but the pretty long wait was worth it. These things were incredible!

New York Magazine Loves La Boulangerie

I forget which reader mentioned this a few weeks ago (Susan, I think?) , but I've been wanting to track it down for a while now, and now I have...

From NYMag.com:

The Greatest Thing Since …

La Boulangerie’s Baguette

"Since its July opening, his modest shop has been like Macy’s on Black Friday. What’s all the fuss about? Croissants, pains au chocolat, naturally leavened boules, but most of all Danielo’s classic baguettes."

Mike Colameco Visits La Boulangerie

"A wonderful little bake shop right in the middle of Forest Hills" kicks off this episode of Mike Colameco's Real Food. Congratulations to La Boulangerie! They certainly deserve the coverage. "I had no idea the neighborhood would be so receptive of an artisanal bread bakery," Francois tells Mike at the end. Yes, there is indeed quite a need here in FoHi for quality places like this.

Salad Days

Salads! You can't live with 'em, you can't live without 'em. Actually, yes you can. Whatever. But this post is about salads in Forest Hills. I was talking with a friend over the weekend who enthusiastically declared that the chicken salad at 5 Burros has rapidly become one of his staples. I agree -- it is indeed an awesome salad.

All that salad talk must've made an impression on me, because on Sunday, I took a leap of faith and tried the Nicoise Salad from La Boulangerie. Of their three salads: Garden, Chicken and Nicoise, this had been the only one I still hadn't tried. While I am a big fan of the other two, you can only have the same salad for so long before you need a change.

I remember the friendly, helpful owner of La Boulangerie had once suggested I try the Nicoise salad. If only he hadn't asked me: "Do you like anchovies?" Just so happens anchovies are one of the few foods I have not only disliked, but actually feared. Along with these little fish, the Nicoise Salad contains hard boiled egg, roasted potatoes, tuna, string beans, onions, tomatos, lettuce and topping it all off a house vinaigrette dressing.

But feeling adventurous on Sunday, I took the Nicoise Salad plunge. I decided 'what the hell? What's the worst that can happen?'

I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was this salad exceptionally delicious, but I even conquered my fear, actually eating it with most of the anchovies. And I'm really glad I did. All the ingredients come together perfectly to make for one of the more memorable salad-eating experiences I have ever had. Special kudos for their perfectly-flavored vinaigrette dressing which really serves to unite the flavors of all the ingredients, complementing them all without overwhelming them.

As an extra bonus, I felt pretty full for much of the rest of the day and realized this is one of those rare meals that is pretty healthy, and filling, at the same time.

I look forward to my next Salad Nicoise from Boulangerie. Magnifique!

Halloween Treat

A cute little pumpkin cake, brought to you by La Boulangerie

Figuring Out FoHi

One thing we could definitely use here in Forest Hills is an independent coffee place. Why there are like a zillion of these in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and zilch here in Forest Hills is beyond me.

Here's a photo I took of the O Cafe on 6th Ave. and 12th Street in Manhattan. This is the type of place I'm talking about.

The closest thing we have to a coffee place like this is La Boulangerie. They do brew great coffee and it's a great place to hang out, albeit a little small.

Here in Forest Hills it seems all of our coffee places are of the diner or bakery variety And, of course, there's Starbucks. It's time we joined the modern era here and someone opened an independent coffee house, or two.

This goes to something I've been thinking about for a while. That our neighborhood is still very misunderstood by retailers and restauranteurs when it comes to places to just kick back and relax and have a cup of coffee or a drink with friends. Just look at what has dominated the local scene up until now - sports bars, like Exo Cafe, or calorie-laden bakeries that also happen to serve coffee as an afterthought.

And meanwhile, the biggest success locally in recent years has been the most upscale of the bunch, La Boulangerie.

Walk into La Boulangerie and you can't help but be struck by how many people are just soaking in the wonderful atmosphere, unwinding with a coffee or something to eat. It's obvious that Forest Hills' residents are just aching for more places like this. I think any that open would be astonished by how popular they would be. Enough with the sports bars. We have plenty of those. When are more business owners going to cater to the sophisticated residents of FoHi who frequent places like La Boulangerie?

When Bareburger opens this month I think everyone will be amazed at how popular it is. Why? Because, once again, it caters to a sophisticated clientele that has been grossly underserved here in Forest Hills.

Overheard in Forest Hills

Pleasant, middle-aged man while opening the door for an elderly couple leaving La Boulangerie: "Their food is just great, isn't it?!"

Disgruntled, scowling elderly long-time Forest Hills lady: "Yes, but they're out of baguettes!"

Closing Time ?

Sadly, or perhaps not sadly depending on how you look at it, there's been a bit of a backlog of news about local stores and restaurants closing. Here's a quick rundown:

- Q Bistro, the restaurant on Ascan that used to be Thai and then reopened with a kind of an eclectic-modern style menu, closed about a week or so ago. I quite possibly was among the last guests at this restaurant. And I was left a bit unnerved by the experience, I have to say. While they had done a nice job of redesigning the restaurant, there really wasn't a lot of logic to what they were doing. For one thing, when you create an open kitchen for your guests to watch the food being made, shouldn't that enhance the dining experience, and not make the visitor uneasy? I sat right across from the open kitchen area as I ate and watching what looked like short-order cooks dump what I swear was cans of tomato sauce into what they were preparing was really not the most dinner-enhancing experience.

And here are a couple of other goners, Clear, an interent service provider on Austin St., and Austin Chemists, a small drugstore on Austin right near Ascan (my friend who lives near there said it seemed they spent more time constructing the store than actually being open.) 

I have a very good feeling about what is happening down on Austin St. near Ascan, by the way. Is it just me, or is that area becoming very interesting, between the amazing La Boulangerie, the very enjoyable Brownies & Cream (I just treated myself tonight to some more of their delectable home made Coffee Brownie ice cream - Boy, they have huge chunks of brownies in there, delish! :) ), and the bizarre, yet conversation-generating Sister Unn's. 

Could my dreams of a cute little independent cafe be next down that way? We've already come awfully close with La Boulangerie. Wouldn't the Q Bistro space make for the perfect little indie cafe, ala Park Slopes' Ozzie's, to hang out in? 

Brownies on Hold

We will have to wait until next week for the new store Brownies & Cream to open. But they promise free treats when it does... Also La Boulangerie has had to close for a couple of days this week because of electrical work in that building at night. They say they are not able to make the bread overnight...