ONE OF THE BEST VIENNOISERIE ON THE WEST COAST (THE EAST COAST COMES SECOND PLACE)
You will not cry wolf. You will not cry wolf.
Yes, you will cry sea wolf. Yes, you will cry sea wolf.
When you try anything here you shall not cry wolf any longer.
The wafts of warm, & slightly sweet smells rush to you as soon as you open the door: that's the first sign it's fresh & made on site.
Those crisp & gadjllionnnn layers of buttered laminated dough folded & proofed just perfectly & evenly, the pairings of their savory ingredients from delicata squash to mushrooms, & that perfectly crackly, cinnamon roll that's unlike anything anyone has ever eaten. All cinnamon rolls should be barely sweet, fruity, have a heady aroma of cinnamon, be crackly with a hint of sweetness, & also pillowy, so you can rest your head on it in between bites.
I just don't care for sickeningly frosted/iced cinnamon rolls. Or, the claims that anything sweet will cure your sugar fix. I say, why don't you save yourself, & just purchase some cheap quality sugar in bulk & start injecting intravenously, if all you care about is a sugar fix.
When it's not sugar, but quality scratch made chocolate that you crave, look no further than the Pain Au Chocolat/chocolate croissant/known as chocolatine usually in southern French/Mediterranean usage/Canada. Its multiple layers, perfect proofing, lamination, dense & dark chocolate that's not from a chocolate baton, but house made, so it melts & melds all around the dough.
This melted chocolate makes it perfect for ripping through the bread, & then dipping shards of it in the chocolate. That way as you eat it, you're indirectly complimenting the pastry team at Sea Wolf who works long hours, or thanking any seasoned baker at any bakery. Show them their appreciation by peeling through the layers like you're counting money, as they've put their sweat, tears & blood to present you these ambrosiac like creations with love.
Keeping in mind the above, any laminated pastry they serve, whether it's a savory croissant/galette (not the savory buckwheat pancakes, but general savory croissants) or their standard croissant au beurre, is anything but basic or standard, it's superlative.
Their loaves of bread from their baguettes to their levain & sourdough (always made with naturally occurring yeast) are the bees knees.
If you can appreciate Shake Shack, I somewhat do. They make an array of their local concretes with the Sea Wolf croissant brittle in them.
You'd be a fool not to try anything here.
FOR BREAD GEEKS ONLY
Orrrrrrrrrrr, you'd be a fool if you called yourself a bread geek, & didn't know a thing about poolish. So foolish errrr poolish you are. Oh, you're not very poolish to not know that.
Poolish is a preferment with Polish origins & was initially for pastry production. As its use spread throughout Europe it became common in bread. Today it is used worldwide, from South America to England, from Japan to the United States. It is by definition made with equal weights of flour & water (that is, it is 100% hydration), & a small portion of yeast. And, it has no salt in it. Otherwise, it would be saltish, but you see, it's poolish.
GHETTO CORNER
Crumble & Flake in Capitol Hill is no longer like it once was years ago. I've started calling it Pimple & Fake. And, Coyle's Bake Shop in Greenwood with its miniscule sized everything, that is constantly shrinking portions of everything. I have quite the respect for Rachel, whom I've met briefly, with her credentials from Herbfarm, Columbia City Bakery, & her work as an Executive Pastry Chef at Le Pichet & Cafe Presse. And, the fact she has also worked as the Culinary Director of Fremont's Book Larder notwithstanding (one of my favorite culinary centric bookshops like Read It & Eat in Lincoln Park, Chicago).
Both Crumble & Flake & Coyle's Bake Shop can just weep in their little ghetto corner!
(I want to thank Shelley Z for her line, "in its ghetto corner" which I am using. She couldn't have said it better).
4/2019 read more