I just got back from Dominique Ansel's where i got my first Cronut. For those who have been living under a rock and don't know/care what a Cronut is, it is a mix between a croissant and a donut with a cream filling. New York has gone nuts and thus the tourist have gone nuts and further thus (?) the world has gone nuts. There are knock of Cronuts and a black market where you can buy cronuts someone else stood in line for (questionable)... it's nuts. So obviously, i had to get me one.
My fellow intern and i arrived at the bakery in SoHo at 5:30 a.m. this morning and waited for the shop to open at 8. It was fun, though the first 30 minutes or so were filled with yawns and the desire to fashion a cot out of something anything on the sidewalk.... i refrained... others didn't have such will power.
5:30 a.m. is a strange time in New York. You have the stragglers from going out the night before and the crazy homeless are even more rampant. While in line there were several... a guy walking around singing (the harmless kind), the guy desperately asking who was from Brooklyn and was appalled when no one would respond. He got over it and went back to his trash rummaging. My favorite crazy was the man who claimed he first invented the cronut. For about an hour before opening he had been harassing the bakery shop workers manning the line and us saying he had made the cronut 25 years ago and Dominique owed him. Cops were called. What a mess.
Anyway, waiting in line wasn't that bad. Priyanka (the other intern) and I made friends with the people around us and laughed a lot, mostly out of delirium. As time progressed, the shop workers would come around with treats to hand to us: lemon square bits, miniature cookies, etc. I kept saying it was like charlie and the chocolate factory. Even the way that the inventor of this pastry craze came out before the opening, "Welcome to Dominiques... thank you all for waiting," he said. Interrupted by the aforementioned crazy saying "you poser! i made it!" (Eye Roll). He shook everyones hand as we entered how cool is that... Dominique not the crazy!
So we finally were able to enter the shop. We were in the second round of people who can go in. They only sell 100 or so cronuts a day so we have to enter in an organized fashion or else mass chaos ensues. But we made it in and watched cronuts being made and looked at all the beautiful pastries!
Then,... the moment! We got our cronuts. There's a limit of two per person, no way was i going to be able to eat two but i waited this long... might as well buy two! There were no seats in the shop so we went outside and ate our cronuts! So delicious!! I think the line was worth it and i'll forever be able to say i had the original cronut!
