Macaron Cafe

Clockwise from cut macaron: caramel, coconut, creme brulee, mocha

I believe that they opened a week or two ago, so perhaps that's why the waitresses in cute pink dresses (that put me vaguely in mind of candy stripers' uniforms) weren't quite as efficient as they were enthusiastic. They seemed happy to have a customer (I was not the only person there, so I'm not sure their excitement was justified) but not entirely sure what to do once they had one. They were nice enough (and kept the water glass full enough) to make up for the fact that they couldn't figure out the bill.

The salads looked nice and the sandwich selection was relatively broad considering the place is devoted one type of cookie. I was with a friend and we split two sandwiches that were nice but nothing too impressive. One was a goat cheese, apple, raisin, pine nut, and mustard sandwich; the other was brie, apple, raisin, and mustard. I knew these would be same-y but they sounded good. Both had a very reasonable amount of cheese--both good quality cheeses--and apple. The mustard--a honey dijon, I believe--was very nice. The raisins were odd with the of the sandwich, I picked most of them off. My real complaint was that both of the sandwiches were on the same bread--an overly crusty (and perhaps faintly stale?) baguette. That's alright, I was hungry and despite the fact that I was underwhelmed by the sandwiches I ate my whole portion. Anyway, I was there for the macarons.

Their selection of macaron flavors is impressive. Not wanting to spend to much, my friend and I agreed to split four different flavors. We opted for more traditional flavors, partly because we didn't want to be too adventurous at $2.50 a pop and partly because (at least for me) I like trying the normal flavors to judge the item on its merits before trying unusual flavors that might distract me from deciding if the texture of the meringue and nut flour based cookie is how it should be.

Allow me to make a few generalizations about the state of their macarons before discussing the individual flavors. First, the ratio of filling to cookie is quite good. Second, most of the macarons were beautiful colors that worked perfectly with the favors, but there were a few (like the turquoise vanilla) that were too bright for no apparent reason. I saw no apparent reason, because I'm fine with, say, cassis being chartreuse because the color makes sense...I just don't think you should dye them completely random colors. Third, the surface of the cookies were not smooth. The surface of the macaron cookie should be beautifully smooth, almost shiny, with no texture or color variations. This is easier said than done, trust me. Theirs were very bumpy; presumably because their soft ball sugar was cooked too hot and hardened in little pieces when it hit the cold meringue or it crystallized when cooking and was grainy. This wasn't just a problem with one flavor, it was across the board. I guess it wasn't a mistake with one batch and was, rather, a conscious choice...I can't imagine why. Happily, that didn't mess up the texture of the cookie too much, so it was more an aesthetic issue than anything--although that could be a happy side effect of the humidity of an NYC August, which makes macarons (and most sugar-based things) slightly soft. Fourth, they should probably have a little more height than they did. I'm assuming this problem was linked to the problem with the graininess but it may have been the humidity.

Now for the flavors. My friend and I opted for somewhat traditional flavors, as I mentioned above. We had coconut, mocha, caramel, and crème brûlée. From my least favorite to my favorite:

My least favorite was the crème brûlée, there was something odd about the flavor. I can't put my finger on it exactly--there was something slightly acidic and bitter, almost like verbena, behind the sweet taste of the eggy filling. The filling, at least, had a lovely light and creamy texture to it.

The caramel, unfortunately didn't work terribly well either. The taste was good and the cookie was fine but the filling was bad. They were going for a straight caramel filling, not a cream or ganache filling. That's fine, the problem was the caramel was far too though. They should have made it more of a caramel mou, because as it was it was hard, but not brittle, and so sweet that it hurt your teeth a little. Shame, it had a lot of potential.

Top: mocha; bottom: coconut

The mocha macaron was very nice. One cookie was chocolate, the other was coffee, which I think is very cute, and they were held together by mocha ganache. It had a strong coffee taste but that didn't overpower the chocolate. The cookie was a bit chewy and the ganach filling could have been slightly creamier, but overall quite nice!

The coconut macaron was far and away the best! The cookie was nearly perfect, the cream was light and fluffy and the whole thing was strongly coconut-y without getting soapy (as I find some very sweet coconut flavored things can be). Yes, Laudree's are better, but these were excellent and I didn't have to flips to Paris to get them (yes, I know there is a Laudree in NYC but it isn't nearly as good as the original).

Overall, I'm not terribly impressed by the macarons, which is a pity since the place is called the Macron Cafe, but I can overlook that since the other food was yummy and the staff was nice. I'm not sure I'll go back, there are too many other places I want to try, but I'd recommend it if you happen by it and are hungry.

Francois Payard Bakery

I've met Chef Francois Payard, but I'd never been to his bakery. I decided that was silly and headed over to the shop he recently opened near me. I had heard excellent things about the roulades, so my friend who I was with and I split a piece of coffee roulade. It was delicious! The cake was tender and flavorful. The cream, which I believe was an enriched pastry cream, was incredible and had a perfect, rich, creamy texture. The glaze was on the sticky side and, like everything else, pungently coffee flavored. The macarons were a bit chewy and damp, but they were stuck to the outside of a cake and it was the end of the day.

By the way, the staff was very kind and professional. In addition, we were there at closing so they gave us each a baguette. Obviously they couldn't sell day old baguettes but no point in tossing them, so we got delicious baguettes for free! Very good customer service. I shall have to go back. Plus I want to try the chocolate raspberry roulade, it looked delicious and that is one of my favorite flavor combos.