If you live in the NYC area and don’t know about Cronuts already, you’ve clearly been living under a sad unsweetened rock. The Cronut (TM!) is a doughnut with the flaky layers of a croissant. It was “invented” at Dominique Ansel Bakery on Spring Street. The media is all over it and it’s even being featured on shows like TMZ (I *swear* I’ve only watched three episodes ever).

These puppies sell out every weekend within an hour and people start lining up at 6 am. Now, I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really typically mind waiting in line for something good, but getting up early to do so? No freaking way. I figure the only time I will ever get a Cronut is if I stay up all night until the bars close, head to a diner, try my best to stay awake in line, and then sleep the rest of the day away in a glorious sugared haze. And to be honest, based on how late a few of us were on Saturday, it would have been a good time to try it out. But we couldn’t visit Dominique Ansel twice in one day.

Earlier on Saturday, Kater and I wandered out of Washington Square Park looking for food and looking to get away from the HomeStuck webcomic meetup that was invading our lawn area. We walked for a little and got into a conversation about Cronuts. We realized we were right nearby the bakery and decided that we should go check it out. Even though we were several hours late for cronuts, we figured everything else at the bakery would be delicious as well.

Caitlin had told me that Dominique’s almond croissant would change my life, but they were also out of those at that point of day. They did have regular croissants, chocolate croissants, and something else that intrigued me more – a DKA, Dominique’s Kouign Amann – described on the website as “tender, flaky, croissant-like dough with a carmelized crunchy crust.” This was a premium, at $5.75 but of course I went for it and also ordered a chai macaron.

We enjoyed our purchases in the adorable garden area in the back of the bakery. The DKA was magnificent. And dare I say, life-changing. I could imagine a Cronut being of similar taste, since it was still flaky, but not in a croissant shape, and with a carmelized coating. It wasn’t fried of course, and had no icing, but I think it will make a good replacement until I am rich enough to hire someone to wait in line for Cronuts for me everyday.

xx