Getting Bunned, In and Around Park Slope
and a new regular feature, Buns No More
It’s Tuesday again, bun buds, and you know what that means.
Pastries!
I’ve been watching the Olympics, in awe of the raw human talent and amazed at how hard the last year must have been for those folks. I only have a glimpse of how hard it is to train for a physical feat from the one time I ran a marathon very poorly, and I can’t imagine training for four years only to be told you’ve got to go one more and do it through a pandemic.
Then I think about the fact that I’ve rated 92 cinnamon rolls in that time and suddenly it all seems just a tad bit more achievable. Somebody call up the IOC and have them ship a 🥇 for pastry reviews my way.
Ok enough boasting let’s talk buns. Last week we trekked around north Brooklyn (well, Greenpoint and Billyburg at least), and this week we go to more central Brooklyn to explore around Park Slope. It’s a cute neighborhood, full of bicycles, celebrities, strollers, and brownstones, and the occasional bakery.
Simple Loaf Bakehouse
Our first stop on this tour roughly around Park Slope is over to Simple Loaf Bakehouse, a bakery and cafe on 5th Ave near the heart of the neighborhood. Simple Loaf's cinnamon bun comes flipped and dusted with sugar.
Similar to Le Fournil or Breads Bakery, it appears they've taken croissant strips, dunked in cinnamon filling, and rolled into a tray. The bun I had was toasted a bit too long, which gave a nice crunch but not exactly what I was looking for. There was a caramely glaze on top, and once you got into the middle the cinnamon flavoring was very good - it was just only in the middle. It’s definitely in the genre of coffee shop buns, but a good sample of the genre and honestly the only good roll close to Gowanus/Carroll Gardens.
Southside Coffee
Let’s go south, a few blocks away from Greenwood Cemetery, to Southside Coffee who makes a banging cinnamon roll on Sundays. You can get it with either a cream cheese frosting or blueberry glaze. I opted for the standard cream cheese (mostly for scoring standardization sake, but honestly the bluebs were looking mighty tempting).
Size-wise it's a bit smaller than average, but it more than makes up for it in flavor. The dough is very bready and chewy, in a good way, and the frosting comes to match. It's very thick and creamy, and has a hint of orange to help lighten things up. There wasn't a ton of filling, but enough to make its presence known and leave a bit of stickiness on the bottom. It’s one of the better rolls I’ve had and definitely on the thick and chewy side vs the light and flakey which is fine, but the only thing it left me wanting was a stronger filling.
Leland
We’re gonna get weird and head over to Prospect Heights, which I realize isn’t Park Slope BUT I did bike between here and Southside in the same trip so they get written up together. Leland Eating and Drinking House is a newish neighborhood restaurant that offers a tasty selection of pastries on their brunch menu, including a vegan sourdough cinnamon bun.
The dough is delightfully chewy, and the entire bun is coated in a delicious, creamy frosting with a good amount of orange (two citrus buns in one day!!!) to make it nice and sweet without being overpowering. The filling doesn't have too strong a flavor just enough to let you know it's there. This is a very solid bun to get as a sidekick to your brunch, and my only wish was that the filling was more gooey (my perennial complaint). If you are just looking for the best roll and don’t have concerns about being vegan, I’d just head over a block to Ciao Gloria and go wild.
Everybody Eats
Everybody Eats is a lovely little gluten- and nut-free bakery, back into central Park Slope, and offers a to-go pack of nine cinnamon rolls (also vegan). Their rolls do the best they can, but are ultimately hampered by being gluten free.
The dough is very dense and unfortunately not very flavorful. The cinnamon filling, however, is quite strong and sticky. It could use a bit more butter or brown sugar, but it's a very solid start. The frosting is unfortunately way too sugary - a more creamy frosting would go a long ways. Between these and Posh Pop, I’m firmly convinced that there’s no such thing as a good gluten free cinnamon roll. There may be good cinnamon-based other kinds of pastries, but the roll just ain’t happening. Prove me wrong.
Small Bites
Buns No More - Westville Bakery
In our first edition of Buns No More, we check out Westville Bakery, the short lived baking outpost of delicious NYC mainstay Westville. Located in the East Village, it unfortunately didn’t survive the pandemic.
The cinnamon roll was frosted, and came with pecans. The frosting was a standard icing style frosting, and the dough was fairly standard as well. The cinnamon filling was visible and strong, which was very nice and definitely more in line with my preferences. The nuts are a nice addition for texture, but didn't add much to the flavor. Kinda mediocre overall, would like to see a more gooey filling and creamy frosting.
Is this the end?
No! But, the end of Bun Stuff is nigh. I’ll go into it a bit more in a future edition, but as I’ve neared completion of finding the best cinnamon roll in NYC this newsletter has been equal parts enjoyable and a chore. I’ve still got a few more standard editions left, but will move to a much more irregular cadence. More goodbyes to come, but as always thank you for reading and being my BB4L (bun buds 4 lyfe) 🤎🤎🤎🤎