In Search of the Best of Seattle: Croissants (Part 1)

I am an inherently cautious person. Thus, it would be premature for me to crown the 'Roi de Croissant' from just one sampling from a limited selection. However, I had to start somewhere. I am fascinated and obsessed with finding the 'best' of anything. I would rather have a little of the best than an abundance of the mediocre. For the past year or so, I have been wondering whether it was possible to find a good croissant in Seattle. From our fairly frequent recent forays to Paris, I have developed a better appreciation for French food and wine and want to approximate if not closely replicate my gastronomic experiences there with what I can find here.

So, to the competition. The goal is to find the most authentic croissant in Seattle. If you are like me, you have noticed that what passes for a croissant here is a soft, fluffy, bread-like pastry whose only croissant-like feature is that it is in fact crescent-shaped. Enough is enough and I firmly believe that if you are going to eat a croissant, you are obliged to find a real one. For this particular taste test I chose to compare Besalu, located in Ballard with Cafe Presse near Seattle U, the offshoot and sister restaurant of Le Pichet near Pike Place Market.

Early Sunday morning I drove to Besalu and was pleased to run into my friend Gordon Waddell. I am glad he is well and he has a beautiful 14-month old daughter. I bought a croissant and a coconut macaroon (they looked so good and it occurred to me that I may want to do some early research into 'the best macaroon in Seattle' at some point). The croissant was still warm and they also gave me a little container house-made apricot confiture to go with it. I resisted the urge to tear into the buttery pastry right then and there and carefully raced to Cafe Presse to pick up the other contestant contemplating whether to plug in the incubator that I have been carrying around in the back of my car for a week to keep the croissant warm. The croissant I picked up at Cafe Presse was not piping hot having been prepared earlier in the morning. They also gave me some apple-rhubarb confiture.

Once home, I put on a pot of coffee and prepared my experiment, layout out both croissants, butter, the confitures, coffee cup, orange juice and some sparkling water to 'cleanse the palet' between samplings. The end-of-cycle spluttering of the coffee machine signaled that I was ready to start tasting.

Below is a picture of the matchup. Besalu's croissant on the right and Cafe Presse's on the left. Each came with a little house-made confiture, apricot and apple-rhubarb.

Visually the Besalu croissant was more appealing, having a slight shape but not overdone. The flaky exterior was also more authentic. On the texture front, Besalu won again with the right amount of crunch on the outside with glutenous stretch inside. Cafe Presse's croissant scored higher on smell and 'mouth feel' though with a silkier, more buttery finish. In the final analysis, though, I declared Besalu the winner.

Next matchup will be Besalu and Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle. With this face-off I hope to identify the best croissant in Seattle, though I am happy to also consider other contenders.