The newest and fifth location of Maison Kayser opened a few weeks ago on the Upper East Side, not too far from its first location, a 120 seat café and an extended coffee bar. Arriving on that early Saturday morning, the retail section was bustling with activity from mostly locals who reside around the area picking up their morning coffee, a pastry and maybe a few loaves of bread.
I went in to dine with a friend for brunch and tried out Master baker Yann Ledoux’s seasonal breads for the summer, like the delectable crusty, thin ficelles of black olive and prosciutto. There was buckwheat kalamata olive bread for sale but the latter sold out before noon! Pastries and bread from this bakery are fail safe and are carb heaven.
Chef Olivier Reginensi oversees a summer menu with a few classic French dishes. We opted for the saucisses & oeufs brouillés, an open-faced sandwich of sweet sausage, scrambled eggs, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, basil pesto and Gruyère. The salmon rösti and tzatziki, seared Atlantic salmon, tzatziki sauce, mixed green salad was a light meal with wonderful flavors.
Of course, I can’t resist picking up a smattering of their delicious breakfast pastries to have on a lazy Sunday morning. Their Plié (filled with chocolate and custard) croissants is one of my favorite decadent croissants. The small loaf of rye filled with currants and sunflower seeds is fantastic thinly sliced and schmeared with a bright fruit jam.
I also had an afternoon tea for my brother’s birthday with my family. We started out with Maison Kayser’s beautiful miniature cakes of Mangodor (mango mousse, cassis crémeux center, almond biscuit, mango glaze) and Cocorico (passion fruit mousse, coconut crème brûlée center, coconut biscuit). Both cakes were intensely flavored but feels light. The coffee éclairs were sublime with the bittersweet, almost chocolate-y, coffee pastry cream filling and it’s not sweet.
Of course, we needed something substantial and not all things sweet and balanced out with the wonderful, crusty tangy crumbed loaves of Tourte de Meule and delicately crusted olives and herbs and Gruyere and prosciutto ficelles. The tender, delicately crumbed and slightly sweet small loaves of the Viennois Pécan that’s gently flavored with cinnamon along with pecan studs and Viennois Chocolat Blanc that was a great sweet treat by itself or you can go all out with a chocolate hazelnut spread.
The pièce de résistance of the entire shindig was definitely the large yuzu lemon tart. The buttery, crumbly substantial crust was a great foil to the creamy yet ethereal yuzu lemon curd.
Happy birthday, brother! Hope this year is everything you wanted and more!
To view more photos of this visit, please CLICK HERE or view the gallery below:
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Information:
Maison Kayser
Website
Upper East Side
1535 Third Avenue (on 86th St)
New York, NY 10028
Telephone: 212-348-8400
