Fleur de Lis has been our local bakery for about two and a half years, and it’s been a wonderful relationship from the start. We were wary at first, because we’d liked the folks at the old place, but Greg and Lisa Mistell easily won our customer loyalty with their amazing baked goods, and won our hearts with their acceptance of our then nine-year-old son as a volunteer worker. He would show up periodically, help bus tables a little, but mostly (so I’ve been told) would schmooze the customers. For this he would be very handsomely rewarded with a variety of baked goods.
In the ensuing years, our son’s interest in volunteering at the bakery has fallen off a bit, but not so our interest in their offerings. Greg produces a variety of French pastries that are never too sweet, never too heavy, and always creative. These include one of the best croissants I’ve ever had, as light and flaky as any you can buy in France. He also makes wonderful lemon tarts, crisp and crunchy palmieres, apple mazurkas, donuts (not so French, but still delectable), cinnamon rolls (see donuts), and scones that live up to their name. These are not the heavy, doughy, taste-free hunks that plod under the banner of scone, that one often finds elsewhere. They have an unexpected lightness to them and a delicious flavor. My favorite is the orange-currant … unless it’s the fennel scone. It’s hard to choose.
Pastries are fine, but what we really need to talk about is the bread. Personally, I am most fond of Greg’s boulo, my husband loves the multi-grain loaf, and my children can easily devour one of their generous baguettes in one sitting. Sometimes, just to mix things up, we buy the levain, which is also always good. A recent addition is their challah, which we buy and enjoy every Friday.
All of these delicious products are available at the Hollywood Farmers Market and I urge you to meditate peacefully in the long lines at their booth. It’s worth the wait.
For more offerings of the soup and sandwich variety, as well as coffee and tea, one can go to their location at 3930 NE Hancock Street where the service is unfailingly friendly.
So here I am, at the end of this article and all I really want is a piece of bread from Fleur de Lis. The saddest part? It’s 10:30 at night and I’ll have to settle for what’s in the house — something from Trader Joe’s. Eh. Maybe I’ll just go to bed.
by Leora Troper, HFM Volunteer, 2008