This heir to the pretzel croissant is more than worthy!

The iconic City Bakery closed its doors in 2019, deep in debt and facing outrage from workers who hadn’t been paid in two + months. I was not so sorry to see this institution go, along with its pricey Birdbath bakery offshoots. But I was sorry to see the end of the Pretzel Croissant. In my About page, which surely needs changing as most of the venues I mention are now shuttered, I say that the City Bakery’s Pretzel Croissant “is still the most perfect snack item of all time.”

But just like Dominique Ansel’s Cronut spawned lots of copycat cronuts (I saw one in The Donut Pub yesterday, and there was absolutely no line!), the pretzel croissant has its imitators. I didn’t expect to find one that outdid the original, but I found an extremely close second at Black Star Bakery & Cafe.

As with so many snack recommendations these days, I get them from the friendly group on my bi-weekly “Scandinavia House Not-At-Scandinavia House” knitting zoom. When fellow knitter and snacker Jill found out the Chef and I were going to Long Island City one weekend, she said we HAD TO go to Black Star Bakery. And so we did. On November 7, the day we and most of the city spent the morning dancing in the streets at impromptu Biden-Harris victory parties, we took the afternoon to bask in the sweet victory and sunshine along the East River of LIC. My knitting pal met us at Black Star, which was more modern and chain-y looking than I expected. My go-to place in LIC is Sweetleaf, which looks like a dark velvet cave and has a quirky back room with a turntable. Well, we can’t go inside anywhere these days, so I ate a wedge of pumpkin pie (Why??) and the Chef had a chocolate/halva pan pastry, YUM ($1.95). When I went in to use the restroom, though, I was intrigued by the platter of sesame pretzel croissants ($3.85/ea), Mideastern croissants (sprinkled with Zaatar) and Everything croissants, you know, like the bagel ($3.95/ea).

Jill saw me eyeing them and told me that Black Star’s pretzel croissants were better than City Bakery’s. “Whaaa?” I almost took that as an affront. They’re not so dense, she told us, and they are more flaky and buttery inside. I bought two to bring home, freeze, and heat up for weekday breakfasts. And damn! She was so right. These had the benefit of the crunchy sesame seeds and hint of salt, but instead of being so chewy, these were airy, and light, with stretch-apart layers of buttery goodness. I was hooked, and within a matter of days, I biked over to the Upper East Side branch of Black Star and bought another bag. Sometimes an imitation can almost surpass the original. I say “almost,” because I still feel that the City Bakery pretzel croissant in its heft, and layering, its texture and complex weave of flavors (seen here in process) is something that can’t be beat…yet.

Black Star Bakery & Cafe has four locations. Here’s the two I went to:
LIC
2-10 50th Ave
718-433-9189

UES
1597 York Ave. (near 84th St.)
646-726-4546