Le Mirage Pastry

"Maher Nakhal opened Le Mirage Pastry in 2003. Initially, he focused on Middle Eastern sweets like knafeh, baklava, and cakes. In 2016, he built on frozen traditions that his in-laws established in the 1880s at Bakdash, a famed ice cream parlor in Damascus, Syria. To produce booza, a type of ice cream with a uniquely chewy texture, Nakhal and his team pound ice cream by hand with a wood hammer and scrape it off from a stainless steel well. Le Mirage Pastry uses milk, sugar, vanilla, rose water, sahlab (herbaceous orchid powder) and mastic for chew. Frozen slices become white petals rolled with crushed Turkish pistachios, forming decorative (and delicious) flowers. — Joshua Lurie" - Joshua Lurie, Anne Marie Panoringan

"Le Mirage is an all-around excellent Syrian bakery filled with every type of pastry, cake, tart, and cookie you could want. But like skipping to your favorite track on a greatest hits album, we can't ever go here without ordering their baklava and bouza ice cream. The baklava is the best in the neighborhood (a high distinction in Little Arabia), but it’s the bouza that is worth a road trip just to eat. The taffy-like Syrian ice cream—thickened with a type of dried tree sap—is rich, gooey, and modeled after the same ice cream the owner grew up eating in Damascus. It’s an incredibly special dessert that deserves a spot in everyone's ice cream Rolodex." - brant cox

"The thing about Le Mirage is that it’s actually an all-around great bakery filled with every type of pastry, cake, tart, and cookie you could want. The problem is, we always just end up getting the baklava and bouza ice cream. The baklava is our favorite in the neighborhood (a high distinction in Little Arabia), but it’s the bouza that you should be driving long distances to eat. The taffy-like Syrian ice cream is thick, gooey, and delicious, and modeled after the same ice cream the owner grew up eating in Damascus. It’s an incredibly special dessert and one that should be added immediately to your ice cream Rolodex." - Brant Cox

"Maher Nakhal opened Le Mirage Pastry in 2003. Initially, he focused on Middle Eastern sweets like knafeh, baklava, and cakes. In 2016, he built on frozen traditions that his in-laws established in the 1880s at Bakdash, a famed ice cream parlor in Damascus, Syria. To produce booza, a type of ice cream with a uniquely chewy texture, Nakhal and his team pound ice cream by hand with a wood hammer and scrape it off from a stainless steel well. Le Mirage Pastry uses milk, sugar, vanilla, rose water, sahlab (herbaceous orchid powder) and mastic for chew. Frozen slices become white petals rolled with crushed Turkish pistachios, forming decorative (and delicious) flowers." - Joshua Lurie

"The thing about Le Mirage is that it’s actually an all-around great bakery filled with every type of pastry, cake, tart, and cookie you could want. The problem is, we always just end up getting the baklava and bouza ice cream. The baklava is our favorite in the neighborhood (a high distinction in Little Arabia), but it’s the bouza that you should be driving long distances to eat. The taffy-like Syrian ice cream is thick, gooey, and delicious, and modeled after the same ice cream the owner grew up eating in Damascus. It’s an incredibly special dessert and one that should be added immediately to your ice cream Rolodex." - Brant Cox