Bouchon in Beverly Hills has a Bistro, a “bar”, and yesterday they opened a small bakery beneath the stairs leading to the bistro. What’s next? Bouchon vending machines? The small counter offers breads, pre-packaged goods, sandwiches, salads, plus espressos and coffees from Equator. But the reason I was at the door on opening day is that Bouchon is the dealer for my fix, my craving, my heart’s desire – macarons, TKOs, chocolate bouchons and an assortment of their other fresh and delicate cookies.
A few of the more interesting offerings include foie gras terrines, caramel popcorn, and even foie gras doggie biscuits for the super-lucky pooches. They are made from wheat and foie gras, so I was tempted to try one for the sake of research. However, I let the adorable Brutus test taste one and I went with a passionfruit macaron.
I also ordeed the simple but classic ham and cheese baguette. The flavorful Parisian ham, creamy Emmental cheese, sweet butter and sharp bite of Dijon mustard on a crisp baguette straight out of their oven somehow came together to make a sandwich that was more than the sum of its parts. This is sandwich-making at its finest.
At around ten bucks for a sandwich ($7.50) and cookie ($2-$3.25), it is a brown bag lunch fit for a queen. Whenever Thomas Keller does decide to open up a chain of terrine-dispensing vending machines you can be sure I will be at the front of the line with a sackful of quarters.
That’s a good price for a sandwich that sounds so tasty! You can easily spend that much at a coffee shop chain for lunch… or more.
This is hard for me to even look at, with my love of French bakeries. This photographs even smell delicious. I won’t tell Chester.
Scratch and snif computer screens! We will make a forrr-tune!