CleverBuns

I forgot to take a picture of this Croissant, and wrote this review after-the-fact.

About the Store

Detour Bakery is an independently owned retail bakery in Southeast Denver, Colorado. I found it in January 2021 during a trip to Denver, on a morning I needed to get out and walk around.

The Croissant

The croissants at Detour are curved, and the overall rise isn’t very high; the overall look is more tubular. Their exterior coloration is a fairly consistent medium brown. Some croissants in the store have layer seams that were slightly lighter than the rest, but others were more consistently brown. The exterior layer flakes off in crumbs but not too many. I would characterize the look of these croissants as a bit more down-to-earth than the really tall ones—longer, tubular croissants evoke some nostalgia.

I payed a bit less attention to the structure of the croissant I bought. The inner texture was unremarkable when I bit into it, and I first thought the taste was a bit stale. However, the more I ate, the more I changed my mind. The croissant tasted exactly like one you could buy in a bakery in France! There was definitely a nostalgia factor at play. The quality I had identified as stale seemed more like the interplay between dough and butter when there’s less sweetness.

Ratings & Numbers

Rating: 😀
Taste Quality: 🇫🇷
Price: Around $3 (2021)

I highly recommend this location.

Other Goods

This bakery offers other filled croissants and pains au chocolat as well as breads and ready-to-eat sandwiches. They surprisingly offer small-sized clafoutis, a sweet eggy dish I haven’t found outside of France before!

You’ll also find shelves with French mustards, cornichons, terrine, and the entire complement of imported Bonne Maman jams.

Links

Detour Bakery

About the Store

La Fillette is a small bakery in Denver, Colorado, which styles itself as “a French inspired bakery in the Hilltop neighborhood of Denver, CO.” I was brought there in January 2021 by a friend who had heard I was looking for croissants.

The Croissant

The croissants at La Fillette have a straight shape with a high peak. Their exterior coloration is light, but not consistently. The croissant I bought had nicely browned outermost ridges but the layer seams, where the layers expanded, were very light. The exterior layer broke off into a lot of crumbs. Overall the croissant I bought looked okay, but a bit rougher and less “well put-together” than others I’ve eaten. I don’t know if was representative of the bakery, as the website shows a very different image from the one I had. Maybe their bake wasn’t consistent.

I payed a bit less attention to the structure of this croissant than of others’. I did feel the flavor didn’t particularly stand out, and the texture was more dense than other croissants I’ve eaten before. The density suggests that this croissant is more of a multi-purpose viennoiserie, usable not just a stand-alone snack, but also as the bread of a sandwich. Croissants like that feel more American to me.

Okay to eat, but not my first choice.

Ratings & Numbers

Rating: 😐
Taste Quality: 🇺🇸
Price: Around $4.00? (2021)

Other Goods

This bakery makes other pastries with flaky pastry dough, but they’re more set up to be a cafe where you can sit down and eat.

Links

La Fillette

This review was originally written in January 2021. It was revised after a new visit in July 2021, adding more information.

About the Store

Reunion Bread Co is a small bakery in Denver, Colorado, offering naturally leavened bread and pastries made daily, with a few coffee drinks if desired. It’s owned by Venezuelan Ismael De Sousa. I was brought there in January 2021 by a friend who had heard I was looking for croissants.

The Croissant

The croissants from this bakery are a medium size, have a straight shape, and a medium peak. Their exterior is nicely, evenly browned. A few croissants have a bit of a lighter color where the layer seams show and expanded. The bottom of the croissants have darker areas where they made contact with the pan. The outer layer flakes off into small and medium crumbs. The smell is heavily of butter, with a little bit of burnt darkness from the crisping of the crust.

The croissants I’ve eaten here have all been fairly sturdy on the outside (the crust actually has some strength), but will crush without too much force. Overall I consider these croissants to have a fantastic look and shape—the first time I visited, I would have said their overall appearance and proportion match the croissant paradigm; they’re not too big, not too small, and good for a cup of coffee.

The interior of the croissants I had felt very airy and light. They had an airy cellular structure. In one I ate, there was more air than I’ve seen in other croissants, and in another, the structure was a bit tighter, but the result was the same: they felt light, and they had a lot of give and squishability, which speaks to the softness of the inside. The interior smells leaned heavily towards richness and butter, with a faint odor of bready fermentation aftewards.

The croissants tasted heavily of butter from the inside, and a crusty darkness from the exterior. I loved the interplay between the flavors, and the overall lightness from the air pockets. In both times I ate these croissants I got to eat them while they were fresh, and they were delicious with coffee.

Ratings & Numbers

One of my favorite croissants I’ve had in the USA. Worth the price.

Rating: 🤩
Taste Quality: 🇫🇷
Price: $4.00 (January 2021), $5.00 (July 2021)

Other Goods

This bakery makes a few different kinds of buns and pastries, all sourdough bread, and some sandwiches. They also experiment with new pastries from time to time, but their menu stays small. Try the golfeado or the pasteis de nada!

Links

Reunion Bread Co