The other day at work we got these pretzel croissants from The City Bakery, a hot spot in the Flat Iron district known for their baked goods (they make a fresh batch of cookies every 30 minutes) and bustling lunch crowd (their atypical salad bar features farmer's market produce and sophisticated munchies like smoked tofu with chili garlic sauce and Bulgar with feta, parsley, and chopped bell peppers).
The pretzel croissant is City Bakery's "in between" specialty. What the French may find as blasphemous, New Yorkers have widely embraced; this Americanized classic pastry has attracted such a following that City Bakery made a website devoted exclusively to this "sweet & salty, flaky & rich, weird and wonderful," concoction, and various bloggers have elevated the baked good to god-like proportions. As Andrea Strong of The Strong Buzz noted, "Maury Rubin, the owner and creator of City Bakery, would probably have a warrant taken out on him if he ever closed City Bakery."
If you haven't yet experienced the buzz surrounding this trendy joint, I can vouch--at least for the hype surrounding the pretzel croissant. It's one of those unique "only in New York" things that everyone should get to try at some point or other. And while it's not necessarily "cheap," it will only set you back about $4, and it's so rich and satisfying it's worth every penny.
The pretzel croissant tastes exactly how you would expect a salty pretzel and a buttery, flaky croissant to taste if melded together. The bite starts out crunchy, as your teeth break into the buttery, flaky top layers. About mid-chew, your pearly whites begin to sink into the soft, moist, and chewy interior; the pretzel croissants we got were still warm, and they had that right-out-of-the-oven taste. While many things in New York are just short-lived fads, the legacy of the pretzel croissant is sure to last for many years to come. Isn't it about time you treat yourself to a sweet and salty treat?
Location: 3 W 18th St (btw 5th and 6th)
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