Patisserie Mercier [RIP]

Bakery: Patisserie Mercier
Address: 200 Jarry Est, Montreal QC
Website: www.patisseriemercier.com
Style: French
Price: $-$$

So, I was in Montreal two weeks ago for the film festival that was going on there. The film festival was a disappointment, but, fortunately, the Cake Touring didn't fail at all and I picked up some delicious stuff I might have never tried out before.

Take Mercier, which was 100m from the apartment we rented for the weekend. This is a bakery/pastry shop/chocolate maker/wedding cake place (yes, they seem to do everything) that seems to have been here for awhile now. Besides the chocolates and cakes/tortes, they also bake fresh, buttery baked goods everything morning, though the vast majority of people just come for the croissants. I'm so much more exciting than that and got a bunch of goodies that looked fairly simple, but ended up tasting super delicious...

First of all was a cinnamon bun and an almond bun, both of which fall under the brioche category (in price as well: both were at a very affordable $1.60) and were so yummy. The almond one, with the flaked almonds and dab of icing, was especially tasty: super fresh French dough that's soft and fluffy on the inside and has that nice buttery crunch on the outside. Mmmm... these were really baked to perfection!

Besides this, there was the almond tart ($2.65), a nice flaky shell stuffed with an almond mass and topped off with some icing and a maraschino cherry (I didn't think that it should be re-positioned to the middle... oops -_-) Again, I can only say how tasty this was; bigger and moister than the tart's northern (i.e. Scandinavian and Dutch) equivalents, this was just amazing to cut into to.

I don't know why, but I wanted to give this place 3 1/2 stars, but after looking back at the photos and reliving every yummy moment, I must have been crazy to want to give them less than a perfect 4. Now, if only there existed these established, neighbourhood bakeries where you could pop in for a freshly-baked goody around here. :(

Rating: ****