:a_Top:
Patisserie Salzburg 1 Christie Place Scarsdale, NY 10583 (Map) (914) 472-8300 http://patisseriesalzburg.com/
La Renaissance Patisserie Francaise
9 Harwood Court
Scarsdale NY 10583 (Map)
(914) 472-0702
http://lrbakery.com/
Scarsdale is like Little France. Ok, so perhaps that’s an overstatement. But just as Scarsdale is home to twin Chase banks, so it is home to multiple French cafés. Our primary destination was Patisserie Salzburg. However, we also wound up sampling La Renaissance Patisserie Francaise. It was like a French café cage match in our stomachs. Which café did our guts proclaim the victor? Read on, mes amis.
Attendees: :jump_to_Shelley:, :jump_to_Sylvia:, :jump_to_Reid:, :jump_to_Jeff:
:a_Shelley:
When I arrived at Patisserie Salzburg this morning (which turns out to be right next to Chat American Grill), I was exceedingly hungry. I think I’ve gone to the gym more in the last week than I went during all of February and my workout-induced hunger led me to create a five course meal for myself. (Well, four courses at Patisserie Salzburg, one more course elsewhere–explained later.)
Scarsdale’s Patisserie Salzburg is much larger than its counterpart in Rye and the offerings are much more varied. The cases to the right side of the counter are filled with enough delectable sweet offerings to keep the mouths of kids (and some adults) watering for days. The left side has your savory offerings. Now, I was expecting only typical French café offerings–things like croissant sandwiches, quiches, etc. I was surprised to see lasagna, potato pancakes, braised short rib tea sandwiches, and duck quesadilla. Seems like Patisserie Salzburg is a café that wants to break out of the box. Is this a good thing? Or should they pare down their offerings and stick to the more tried and true fare?
While you contemplate those questions, on to what I ordered. The selection of tea sandwiches caught my eye before I even noticed that there was a breakfast menu listing some hot items (French toast, pancakes, a fried egg BLT on a brioche, omelette, etc.) perched atop the counter. The brioche egg sandwich was intriguing, but I decided to go with my original choice and asked for three tea sandwiches: egg salad, chicken salad, and cucumber with goat cheese (no short rib tea sandwich for me). As I walked to the cash register I noticed a tray of filled croissants: ham and cheese or spinach and cheese. So, I got a spinach and cheese croissant, heated up. I decided to round things out with a chai latte and a red velvet cupcake. All of this came to $17.18, not terrible. It took awhile to finalize the transaction, though, as the several people behind the counter were scrambling and seemed frazzled.
First things first: The tea. Unfortunately, I didn’t actually taste much of the chai at all, even though the tea bag was left seeping in the mug. I asked for skim milk, in an attempt to balance out all the calories I was consuming, but that just served to water down the whole beverage. The froth was also way too much.
Next up: My trio of tea sandwiches. The egg salad was unremarkable–a word I use not in the negative sense, simply that there’s not much to remark on. It was good ol’ egg salad that got the job done. The cucumber/goat cheese sandwich was more intriguing. The goat cheese was not overpowering, and was a welcome change from the usual cream cheese that often accompanies cucumber sandwiches. My chicken salad tea sandwich tasted suspiciously like tuna. By this I mean I’m 99.9% sure it was, in fact, tuna. An error, yes, but the tuna was actually tasty, with plentiful sprinkles of dill throughout.
Next up: The spinach/cheese filled croissant. This was a bit disappointing. It was very flattened; this wasn’t a flakey, fluffy croissant. Additionally, there simply wasn’t enough spinach/cheese filling to make this worth the endeavor The filling seemed to be contained mainly on one side, but even then all I could taste was the overpoweringly buttery croissant. I may as well have just gotten a plain croissant and called it a day.
Finally: The red velvet cupcake. This was another let down, unfortunately. The frosting wasn’t right. True to red velvet, it was a cream cheese frosting. However, it wasn’t balanced with enough sugar. Instead, the frosting tasted like a thick clump of pure cream cheese spread atop a cupcake. Perhaps I would have been more satisfied if I had tried a French dessert, like one of the colorful macaroons.
After our meal we wandered around Scarsdale a bit. Jeff was still a bit hungry, so we popped into the nearby La Renaissance Patisserie Francaise. (That’s right, Scarsdale has two French cafes within walking distance. Kind of like how there’s two Chase banks within eyesight of each other.) La Renaissance is much more homey-feeling than Patisserie Salzburg. There are just two tables, and the interior is painted a warm and welcoming burgundy shade. It feels like a true café. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was the delectable aroma of the French onion soup wafting from the kitchen. Jeff promptly ordered a cup while I filled out an entry form to win a free cake. (A café with a free cake contest–bonus points!) The server brought the soup to the table and presented it with a smile. Now, I thought I was full, but when I stole a spoonful of the French onion soup that Jeff got, I was hooked. Make room stomach, here comes the fifth course!
The soup itself was perfection in a cup. I usually think of French onion soup as heavy, but this was surprisingly light. It has gruyere cheese, but it’s not caked on top as is usually the case when you order a crock of French onion soup. Instead, there were shreds of cheese sprinkled on top. The croutons were hearty, thick, filling cuts of crunch bread. The onions themselves were very sweet and soft, which helped contribute to the all around lightness of the soup. The sweetness of the onions worked in perfect balance with the saltiness of the beef stock. It was a bit pricey ($6 for a basic cup), but La Renaissance has a winner.
To return to the questions I posed at the beginning of this piece. I think La Renaissance proves that it’s often more effective for a place like a café to offer fewer items, thus allowing an establishment to really perfect those items. La Renaissance has the best French Onion Soup I’ve had in I don’t know how long. Salzburg has a lot of items, but not all of them were great. I’d recommend Salzburg take Renaissance’s lead and pare down the choices, perhaps focusing on more genuine French dishes. In this accidental battle royale, I have to award the trophy to La Renaissance: They perfected an authentic dish and have a welcoming café atmosphere.
:back_to_Top:
:a_Sylvia:
It was a lovely Sunday, and I had just completed the Crossfit Games Open workout 13.5, the last workout of the open. The workout consisted of two elements, only one of which I was able to actually do. Didn’t matter, I was still able to record a score. Five weeks, no zeros! Way better than my wildest expectations going into this five weeks ago.
To celebrate, I arrived at Patisserie Salszburg way ahead of the previous agreed upon time for the group. The space was bright and cheery, perhaps a bit too bright. There were two display cases, one filled with savory food options, the other with the sweet. I didn’t get to see much of the sweet case since I walked in through the door closest to the savory case. Nonetheless, I was in la-la land and didn’t pay attention to anything but the chocolate croissant I wanted.
So, as I waited for the group to trickle in, I noshed on a chocolate croissant and a large cup of coffee (for $5.75). Why is it in the United States, the price for a chocolate croissant goes up and the quality goes down, relative to those found in Paris, or even, as I recently found, Quebec.
After the group was complete, Jeff was nice enough to get me a slice of salmon quiche as I manned the tables. The quiche was blah. There was nothing memorable about it, but nothing that made it terrible. It was just blah. The salmon in it wasn’t smoked salmon, but had the smoked salmon saltiness to it. The egg was okay, and the crust was disappointingly soft and not flaky at all. Quiches need seasoning, and this one banked on the saltiness of the salmon to carry it. Not the best idea.
I did go to the Patisserie Salzburg in Rye previously, and even though that space is half the size of this new one, I felt like that one was the better one in terms of quality of sweet food offerings. If I went back to a Patisserie Salzburg, I’d definitely go back to the one in Rye.
The czar says: Pricing is a bit high for the quality of foods sampled, but this is Scarsdale after all. However, not a bad option to grab a quick light bite to eat with a friend before running around town.
:back_to_Top:
:a_Reid:
The Case: Patisserie Salzburg v. The Westchester Breakfast Club
The Venue: Christie Street, Scarsdale
The Facts: Only one fact you really need to know about Patisserie Salzburg: They charge $2.25 for a single rainbow cookie. The food was fine (I had a tea, a small elephant ear [$3.25] and a slice of duck quesadilla [$5.25]).
The Verdict: $2.25 for a rainbow cookie. Res ipsa loquitur.
:back_to_Top:
:a_Jeff:
It’s been brought to my attention by a certain reader that my reviews do not evoke enough emotion. Well, here goes nothing.
I would avoid Patisserie Salzburg. I’m really sorry if this offends anyone, but my experience for breakfast wasn’t the happiest. I know, when I don’t like an establishment, it seems like I start to nit-pick at things, but it really should never get to this level. So where to start this little tirade? Let’s start with the layout.
I don’t think there’s enough room in front of the counter for customers to browse all the available items. The front of the store sports lovely groupings of chairs and tables for patrons to sit and enjoy their food. There’s even a large window that lets in a great deal of natural sunlight. The issue here is that between the tables and chairs and the counter, you can only comfortably walk single file in front of the counter. The cash register is also located in the center of the counter, so if a customer wants to browse both display cases, its becomes difficult to maneuver if there’s more than one person. I did notice that there is a great deal of space behind the counter. Almost enough for three people to walk abreast, so it’s not like they couldn’t just move it back 2-3 feet. The other bigger layout issue was that there were two entrances, which allowed customers to come in from opposite sides, thus complicating the flow by the counter. There needs to be a system that helps with people flow, like a clearly designated entering point for ordering at the counter.
Secondly, the person in charge behind the counter wasn’t very nice to me. I had arrived a smidgen early. I wanted to grab a cup of coffee and wait at the table with my group until everyone arrived and we could order breakfast together. I didn’t have cash, so I was going to use my credit card. There was a $5 minimum for credit card purchases, which is 100% understandable. But the counter head mistress wouldn’t let me order a coffee first and then pay for it a bit later when I ordered my entire breakfast. Is she afraid I’m going to drink the coffee and run out the door without paying for it? It’s just a cup of coffee!
Now I arrive at my biggest gripe, which is the main reason I’m in a crabby mood about this place. My quiche had absolutely no flavor. None! There was no salt, no pepper, no nothing. How can you possibly charge 5+ dollars for something like that?
Well, that’s it in a nut shell. The meal and establishment were so unsatisfying that we walked around Scarsdale in search of a different place to eat. I’m sure other reviews will cover that. As for me, this review is pretty much done. I’m sorry if it did not evoke enough emotion. Maybe next time I’ll use more literary elements in order to make my writing more sophisticated.