LRP Redux* installment 9: Jeannot’s Patisserie & Bistro

Jeannot’s is quite new and in fact is still in “soft opening” mode, with hours from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. It’s in the Atlas Valley Shopping Center at 95th and Arapahoe (2770 Arapahoe Rd., Suite 124), where Lunada used to be. It’s a pleasant space with a nice patio. The woman who took our order told us that the pastries are all baked in house, but they are not able to bake bread because of the limited kitchen space (apparently they have been getting a lot of inquiries about French bread!).

Jeannot’s is owned by Julien and Teresa Jeannot. Julien is from Provence and, after years of  working at various restaurants in Europe, Canada, and the US, most recently was the executive pastry chef for the Mediterranean group in Boulder. I got this info from the website, but he was serving pastries when we went through the line, and it was nice to hear the man in front of us talking to Julien in French because we could pretend that we were in France for a moment.

I’m running a bit behind on my reports again because I actually visited this place almost a week ago, last Saturday. I was meeting my friend Deb to celebrate my birthday with a breakfast excursion. We thought 8 a.m. on a Saturday would be a nice quiet time, but it was actually fairly busy, although the line moved quickly. We decided to take our food back to my house to eat it.

Deb ordered quiche Lorraine, which came with a side of greens, and I got the croissant sandwich (1 slice of ham, 1 slice of cheese, and scrambled eggs on a croissant), which came with a side of fruit. We wanted to try the pastries too, so Deb got a lemon croissant, which was a sort of open-scheme croissant filled with lemon and topped with fresh berries, and I got a chocolate croissant.

We both liked our food very much! The croissants were flaky and buttery, just as they should be, and I thought the proportion of egg to ham and cheese in my sandwich was about right. I also thought the fruit was amazing—I would like to know where they buy their berries! Deb wasn’t sure at first about the large chunks of ham in the quiche; she initially thought it should be diced finer, but she ended up deciding she liked it that way. G had already eaten breakfast, but he split the chocolate croissant with me, and we both thought it was delicious. The amount of chocolate was just about right, and it was distributed in several smaller pockets instead of one big slab. None of us had ever seen a lemon croissant like this before, but Deb said it was fabulous. She went back a few days later to try an apple tart and rated it “amazing.” She also let me know that Wednesday at 9 a.m. was a nice quiet time to stop in.

There will now be a brief hiatus in the LRP Redux because I’m currently out of town and won’t be back until March 31, but I should be able to wrap up the last few in April. When I will also be revisiting Jeannot’s to try more things from the pastry case. Incidentally, I forgot to photograph the pastry case, so if anyone has a photo of it, pop it into the comments!

* Lafayette Restaurant Project Redux: visiting all the new places that have opened since the end of the previous round of the LRP.

Top left: Croissant sandwich with scrambled egg, ham, and cheese and a side of fruit; top right: quiche Lorraine with side of greens and lemon croissant; bottom: chocolate croissant.

Jeannot's on a sunny but chilly Saturday morning

LRP Redux* installment 7: Button Rock Bakery & Kenny Lou’s Deli

I had been to Button Rock a few times back when it was in its old location at 95th and Arapahoe, but it had been a while. It is now located in the District Mall at 400 W South Boulder Rd., Suite 2200, and has added the deli in the same location as the bakery. It has a wide variety of deli-type foods in addition to the baked goods—and sushi!

My friend Sarah and I had a lunch date last Wednesday, so I asked her to meet me at the District, and we ate indoors. The bakery has a little patio, but it was a chilly, snowy day. The indoor part of the mall has quite a few tables and easy chairs with small tables, and they are fairly spread out in the large open area.

While I was waiting for Sarah, the kind server at the counter answered about a hundred questions that I had about the menu and the pastries. I can’t remember them all now, but I appreciated the help.

I wasn’t planning to get sushi because I had my eye on some other menu items, but Sarah got an order of the crispy rice bites. They are actually served cold, and they had them premade in the refrigerator. I tried one, and it was delicious! For our main dish, we each ordered a breakfast sandwich. I got the fried bologna and cheese because I was intrigued by the combination with the potato latke (fried bologna, over-medium egg, provolone, arugula, giardiniera, and potato latke in a warm brioche bun). Sarah got the avocado and egg (scrambled eggs with feta & spinach, avocado, gochujang ketchup, and arugula in a warm brioche bun). These were both amazing sandwiches and extremely filling—so keep that in mind because you will need to save room for dessert! Fortunately, we had planned ahead, so we knew to pace ourselves. Although I liked the combo of flavors and textures very much, I could only eat about 2/3 of the sandwich because it was a lot. My egg was more like over easy than over medium, so next time I might ask them to cook it a bit more. 

For dessert, Sarah got a raspberry napoleon, and I got a chocolate cake bombe (a layer of cake topped with chocolate mousse and coated in chocolate). I am a fan of chocolate mousse in almost any form, so I thought the bombe was the bomb! G wasn’t with us for this meal, but I suggested that he pick up some bombes for him and a friend a few days later, and he also loved them. Sarah was happy with her napoleon, which I sampled and agreed was excellent. She said that she is always trying to match a napoleon that she ate 20 years ago, and this one came close. There are many more things to try from the deli and sushi menus and the bakery case, so we’ll be back!

* Lafayette Restaurant Project Redux: visiting all the new places that have opened since the end of the previous round of the LRP.

I forgot to photograph the outside, so I borrowed this from the Button Rock FB page. 

Me with my fried bologna & cheese breakfast sandwich 

Sarah with her avocado & egg breakfast sandwich (we were dressed like twins, but it was totally accidental)

Top: Crispy rice bites. Bottom: avocado & egg breakfast sandwich and fried bologna & cheese breakfast sandwich 

Chocolate bombe and raspberry napoleon

PRRP Redux 1: Tip Top Savory Pies

My Baseline & 287 Restaurant Project came to an abrupt halt because the last two restaurants that I planned to visit for takeout, Mumtaz and Adesso, both closed (temporarily, I hope). To finish up the circuit of Lafayette for now, I thought we should loop back around to the few new places that have opened on Public Road since we did the PRRP in 2017-2018--that is, if they are open for takeout. The first one that occurred to me was Tip Top. The tiny shop at 105 N. Public Road is closed, and they are doing frozen deliveries only, but they are doing them in an incredibly wide area--86 zip codes! You have to order by midnight on Thursday, and they will deliver your order over the following Saturday, Sunday, or Monday: https://www.tiptopsavorypies.com/delivery.

Not all the pies are currently available frozen--for instance, the breakfast pies are not on the delivery menu--but most of the savory pies are. In addition, you can order sausage rolls; nippers (small pastry pockets stuffed with mac and cheese); and apple, cherry, or peach sweet pies. You can also order the ruff puff pastry by itself and make your own pie! The Tip Top pastry is a beautifully flaky yet sturdy version that is perfect for their handheld, New Zealand-style pies. 

I had had Tip Top pies several times in the pre-pandemic days, but there were quite a few things I hadn't tried before. We set up a video dinner date with our friends Deb and Dave because they had already ordered some Tip Top pies. There's no way to predict precisely when your order will arrive, but we live in Old Town and got ours at about 4:30 p.m. on a Saturday, and Deb and Dave live in Broomfield and got theirs at about 4:30 on a Sunday. We had some overlap in our orders because G and Dave both wanted a steak & ale pie. Deb had a steak & mushroom pie, and I tried the beef ragu pie because it was new to me. Each couple had a mac & cheese nipper with bacon to split. For dessert, G and I shared a cherry pie, and Deb and Dave shared a cherry and a peach (and might even have had leftovers for later).

We all loved our pies! The steak & ale pie has slow-braised Colorado beef, local hand-crafted ale, peas, carrots, and scratch-made gravy (descriptions from the website). The steak & mushroom pie has the same beef and gravy with glazed mushrooms (I have tried the meatless mushroom & ale pie in the past, and it is amazing if you love mushrooms). The beef ragu pie (also known as "mince") has slow-simmered ground beef in a creamy tomato-based gravy. I loved the texture of it and thought the flavors were delicious. The nippers are stuffed with mac & cheese made with a creamy bechamel sauce, and we got the kind with bacon crumbles. The cherry pie is on the tart side, which we all liked. It would have been excellent with a little ice cream, and I was envious that Deb and Dave had some in their freezer! They said the peach pie was also good, but they slightly preferred the cherry.

Overall, this was a great comfort-food dinner. Next time, I'll be adding some sausage rolls to the order!

I'm not putting the map in at the moment because the shop is currently closed.

Screen shot of Deb and Dave showing us their pies

Deb and Dave's pies: coming out of the oven (top), Deb's steak & ale pie and half a nipper (bottom left), and peach and cherry pie quarters (bottom right)

G's steak & ale pie

My beef ragu pie and the mac & cheese nipper with bacon (before I gave G his half of the nipper), plus a side of steamed broccoli (which did not come with the pies)

Our cherry pie

PRRP installment 15: Eats & Sweets

From our few remaining breakfast/lunch places, we drew Eats & Sweets. E&S actually stays open until 8 pm Sun-Thurs and 9 pm Fri and Sat, but I put it in my breakfast/lunch group because its menu is mainly salads/sandwiches/soups and I thought we'd like to visit it at lunchtime. It was hopping today! We have been there quite a few times over the years but not recently, so it was nice to see it so busy. 

Everything was very good, and G said it is his new favorite because he liked his Dave's Roast Beef sandwich so much (it is one of the house creations, and you can also build your own sandwich). He had a cup of carrot-ginger soup with it, and I had clam chowder and a salad topped with chicken salad. Note that if you add extra ingredients to your salad from the list of ingredients that cost extra, you get sizable portions! I ended up with a full half of an avocado along with this giant scoop of chicken salad. 

We also tried two chocolate cupcakes, one with white frosting and one with chocolate. Delicious!

Lots of both eats and sweets that we haven't tried yet! 

Eats & Sweets was hopping at lunchtime.

For me: salad topped with chicken salad and a cup of clam chowder. For G, Dave's Roast Beef and carrot-ginger soup. The soups were peppery, but we like them that way! Note the ice cream happy hour sign in the background.

Delicious cupcakes!