City Bakery

Okay, you know I love City Bakery, with its Greenmarket-reliant savories and perfectly chewy-crisp chocolate chip cookies.  Yesterday after work, I headed over there to get a pre-rehearsal light dinner.  Pickings were a little slim over at the salad bar, so I loaded up on tuna salad and egg salad, passing on the 70 cent baguettes hunks at the end of the line.  As I waited in line to weigh my plate, a counter person floated by with a tray of still warm pretzel croissants, leaving an almost tangible buttery breeze in its wake.  Naturally, I ordered one as a supplement to my my salads, along with one of those chocolate chip cookies. 

I moved my feast to the upstairs dining area and spread out at a corner table.  The pretzel croissant was still radiating warmth from its core, already staining the pulpy plate with its buttery goodness.  I put one croissant tail in my mouth and bit down -- the salt wash across the top stimulated my saliva glands, and the crisp and flaky layers gave way to a slightly sweet, steamy, elastic core of whole wheat flecked pastry; with every chew, the sesame seeds burst into their savory song.  I sat there feeling quite self-congratulatory, knowing with great certainty that I had ordered the best thing on the menu for that particular moment in time at that particular place. 

Grade: A

Total: An eyebrow-raising $19.77 for some veg. and protein selections from the salad bar, a lemonade iced tea, a chocolate chip cookie, and the most seductive, divine croissant experience I've ever had.

Will I return?  Mos def.  I can't stay away, really.  I'm looking forward to raspberry lemonades, fried green tomatoes, maple baked seckel pears and lemon tarts with strawberries.  And whatever else comes fresh off the cooling racks.

City Bakery

3 West 18th Street

btwn 5th Ave. and 6th Ave.

Monday through Friday, 7:30 am - 7:00pm

Saturday, 7:30am - 7:00pm

Take the N Q R W 4 5 6 L to Union Square, or the F to 14th St.

Sunday, 9:00am - 5:30pm.