L'Ami Pierre - French Bakery

Luxurious Standards at L’Ami Pierre and Lodi | The New Yorker

"I first noticed a man walking off with a paper-sleeved baguette dangling from his mouth — an un-staged moment that made the bread seem genuinely irresistible. The café, opened in September by Pierre-Antoine Raberin with Eric Ripert as a consultant (his name even appears on the awning) and sitting across a pedestrian walkway from Le Bernardin, serves a baguette baked on the premises with a shiny, golden, crackly crust and a soft but chewy crumb that holds up to fillings; the classic jambon-beurre here feels luxuriously successful and fulfills its basic promise. By contrast, the grab-and-go refrigerated salads (chicken Caesar; spinach with goat cheese and pine nuts) left me cold, and a butternut-squash soup leaned bitter and overly earthy, but the viennoiseries — particularly the pain aux raisins — sang with clear notes of butter, and a chocolate-chip cookie, oddly tart-like in shape with a slight dip in the middle, steep crisp edges, and rectangular morsels of dense, rich chocolate, was excellent. (Prices roughly $2.50–$14.)" - Hannah Goldfield