Much to my dentist’s dismay, I love sweets. A meal simply doesn’t feel complete without something sugary at the end, and many a 3 p.m. slump has been avoided with a well-timed cookie. A few weeks ago, a waiter called my group her favorite table after we ordered the entire dessert menu.
But I understand that not everyone is about the sweet(s) life. This makes the case for compromise: Where can a person who loves dessert and someone who prefers salty and savory bites meet in the middle without either feeling underrepresented? Well, I’ve got a few recommendations. …
Triple chocolate croissants and butter corn cakes
A lot of the city’s best bakeries start with feverish word-of-mouth. That’s how I discovered Radio Bakery in Greenpoint, which began its life as a roving pop-up from the pastry chef Kelly Mencin before finally settling into a permanent home on India Street.
The brick-and-mortar bakery can only be described as the pop-up on steroids. They don’t just serve croissants, they serve triple chocolate croissants made with cocoa powder and Valrhona chocolate, and a danish-inspired take on the croissant filled with seasonal ingredients like apples from New York orchards or satsuma oranges. There’s also non-croissant options like gluten-free brown-butter corn cake, chewy chocolate chunk cookies and Earl Grey morning buns.
If you don’t like starting your morning off on a sugar high, there’s a tight but well-considered breakfast menu of sandwiches served on housemade focaccia. I recommend going for the dill-y smoked salmon tucked inside a slice of everything spice focaccia. After 11 a.m., there are hearty sandwiches that would do nicely at a springtime picnic in Transmitter Park — just 26 days to go! — including a roast beef and radicchio sandwich on focaccia, and a Brie and caramelized onion sandwich on baguette-like walnut and sour cherry stirato.
