Food & Drink
Perfect Pastries
With the right accompaniment, a good cup of coffee plays on a much larger stage. Here are some of ou
By Seattle Mag December 31, 1969
This article originally appeared in the October 2010 issue of Seattle magazine.
The figgy maple scone from Volunteer Park Café is utter perfection. Buttery, with bits of fig scattered about in the flaky dough, it may be the best in town. Capitol Hill, 1501 17th Ave. E; 206.328.3155; alwaysfreshgoodness.com
No local bakery can match James Miller’s croissant expertise at his decade-old Café Besalu. Pull it apart slowly and inhale the intense butter perfume, bite into the soft flaky crumb: sublime. Ballard, 5909 24th Av. NW; 206.789.1463
The color of butter (with good reason) and shot through with a cinnamon, brown sugar, walnut and currant streusel, the Budapest coffee cake at North Hill Bakery is a simple delight, baked in a Bundt pan. Capitol Hill, 518 15th Ave. E; 206.325.9007
Macrina Bakery’s morning roll is a swirl of tender croissant dough layered with vanilla sugar and baked until fragrant, soft and lovely. It might not look like much sitting next to jam-topped biscuits and frosted cupcakes, but don’t mistake its humble appearance. This one’s pure pleasure. Multiple locations including Queen Anne, 615 W McGraw St.; 206.283.5900
Disguised as a cinnamon roll, the Persian doughnut at Original Bakery is a thing of beauty: yeasty and amazingly light. A touch of cinnamon is rolled into the dough before it’s fried until yielding and almost creamy. Wonderful. West Seattle, 9253 45th Ave. SW; 206.938.5088
Beyond moist and with a little buttermilk tang, the buttermilk old-fashioned doughnut at Madison Park Bakery is the retro real deal. We like it with a cup of the house drip. Madison Park, 4214 E Madison St.; 206.322.3238
Start breakfast at Geraldine’ Counter with one of the awesome coffee cakes. Raspberry cream cheese, strawberry banana, blueberry streusel—the flavors change at the kitchen’s whim, but they’re always delish. Columbia City, 4872 Rainier Ave. S; 206.723.2080
Little Rae’s tender whole wheat banana blueberry muffin proves “moist” and “whole wheat” aren’t mutually exclusive terms. The nut-free bakery’s muffins (not to mention its scones and cookies) can be found at Mioposto and Occhio Coffee, among other cafés. Mioposto: Mount Baker, 3601 S McClellan St.; 206.760.3400; seattle-eats.com. Occhio: SoDo, 1022 First Ave. S; 206.588.1647