7 cruffins + a pastrami croissant grace Mr. Holmes' new pastry menu
(Jakob Layman)

7 cruffins + a pastrami croissant grace Mr. Holmes' new pastry menu

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Tied together by a love of carbs and a disregard for tradition, the innovative culinary team at Mr. Holmes Bakehouse makes its living creating shockingly irreverent and equally tasty pastry.


Run by 26-year-old Aaron Caddel, the culty sweet shop first generated buzz with the well-known cruffin and the sushi croissant. This month, the Instagram darling, which also has locations in Los Angeles and South Korea, introduces a new menu that's just as scrumptious and photo-worthy.

The selection includes treats that are irresistibly savory (the Just Try It croissant has house-made pastrami, pickled onions and oranges, Manchego cheese, and pumpkin and fennel seeds on top); tart (a lemon meringue pie croissant isrolled in lemon sugar, filled with lemon curd, and topped with torched Italian meringue); and sweet (the Crème Brûlée Fete has a cheesecake filling and is topped with caramel shards).

So what's Caddel's recipe for such singular goodies?

"Our [menus] are actually something super distinct in this industry. Instead of the star chef sending (read: screaming) ideas to the cogs in the machine, our company has always created from a collaborative effort by our kitchen teams," he says. "We incorporate creative ideas from all corners of our kitchen, refine and build on those ideas with our head chefs, and then perfect those ideas in a recurring four-month process of idea generation, tweaking, eating carbs, ad infinitum."

On this new menu, the buttery, flaky croissant takes center stage. Why croissants? "That's kind of like asking, 'Why happiness?'" Caddel says. "They're the Will Smith of the pastry world. They are versatile in every area that makes you want to throw that New Year's resolution out the window. I don't know if 'fanatical' is the right word to describe our feelings, but it's the first that comes to mind."

And the next cruffin? Well, apparently there are seven of them, one for every day of the week for the next four months. Caddel recommends the chocolate buckwheat cream: Served on Mondays, "it'll alter your perception of the word 'euphoria.'"

Peep their latest treats below. // 1042 Larkin St. (TenderNob), mrholmesbakehouse.com

We've got our eye on the coffee stout croissant with brown sugar cake and stout beer cream, brushed with a coffee syrup and topped with chocolate glaze, chocolate coffee crumb, and dark chocolate brownie pieces. Something more savory, perhaps? Try the gorgonzola shiitake mushroom danish with sour cream, spring onions, gorgonzola, and garlic.

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