Studio’s Boundary-Pushing Pastries Are the NYC Sweets You Need to Try Now | Eater NY

"On the second floor of the Freehand Hotel, the new all-day cafe Studio has already proven to be a breakfast powerhouse and a favorite on fashionable Instagram feeds. I think the pastries by head baker Zoe Kanan—whose French pastry studies and a stint with Christina Tosi inform her work—are notable for unique flavor combinations and strong textural contrasts that remind me of what Natasha Pickowicz has been doing at Flora Bar and stand apart from the flashier confections at upstarts like Flour Shop and Supermoon Bakehouse. Drawing on her Jewish roots, Kanan creates buttery sweets that complement a savory menu marrying North African and Middle Eastern influences; her pastry case sits in a dining room that feels like an anthropology professor’s apartment, with sheepskin pelts over driftwood, distressed leather, climbing vines, and succulents in unglazed clay pots, and her baked goods shine like rough‑hewn jewels. Go before noon for the best selection and sit at the bar for people-watching: standout items include Turkish-style Simit bagels crusted with sesame, poppy, and caraway; a $3 whole-grain chocolate chip cookie layered with dark chocolate that stays soft in the center and crisps at the edges with toasted-nut and brown-sugar notes (best with the cafe’s strong coffee); Chebakia ($3), a traditional Moroccan sesame-flour fritter twisted, fried, and finished in a rosewater-honey bath; a croissant ($6) made with an alevain that adds milky richness and enhances the butter; a chocolate babka ($5) (a student homage to Melissa Weller’s Sadelle’s version) whose chocolate swirl, brightened with a touch of coffee, is fully enveloped by dough so the result is pillowy, flaky, and deeply chocolatey; and a Persian love cake ($6), a moist almond cake scented with cardamom, rose, and pistachios (topped with a seasonal jam such as blood orange or rhubarb) that, while described by cookbook author Yasmin Khan as an entirely western invention rather than a traditional Iranian cake, is nonetheless a charming centerpiece of Kanan’s case." - Daniela Galarza