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Dominique Ansel Bakery

Dominique Ansel Bakery is a gourmet bakery located in New York City, NY, which serves an array of baked goods, both savory and sweet though is best known for the Cronut, invented by French Pastry Chef, Dominique Ansel.

History Born in 1978 in Beauvais, France, Dominique_Ansel first started his career at local restaurants, and eventually working his way up to an executive pastry chef at Fauchon in Paris for seven years followed by Daniel, a French restaurant located in New York City. Dominique Ansel Bakery was opened in November 2011 on Spring Street, located in SoHo with just a team of four employees. The bakery was named Time Out New York’s best bakery and Zagat’s best ranked bakery within the city. In addition to the cronut, there are other staple items that the bakery was a birthplace for, including: ◦ The cronut ◦ Frozen S’mores ◦ Cookie Shot ◦ DKA A lot of the success came after the launch of the Cronut, released in 2013, which has led to media coverage by outlets such as Good Morning America, The Today Show, Live with Kelly and Michael, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and more.

Location Expansion Following the success of the flagship location in SoHo, Ansel went on to open Dominique Ansel Kitchen in April 2015. It was located within the West Village, but since has closed. In its place is the Dominique Ansel Workshop. The workshop, opened in 2021 on 27th Street in New York which has a focus on traditional French pastries, namely the croissant, and in which the menu differs from the Bakery.

The business model of The Workshop differs from the bakery as it shows the front to back process allowing customers to watch the chefs make the pastries, and is about 4000 square feet whereas the SoHo location is just about 1000 square feet. Additionally, everything in the kitchen is made fresh or assembled to order.

He soon opened locations in London and Los Angeles though the locations closed permanently in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ansel currently has one international location, being in Hong Kong opened in January 2020, entitled Dang Wen Li. The name translates to ‘Dominique’ from Cantonese. There are 3 locations- one in Harbour City, the Flagship at H Queen’s and Pacific Place.

The restaurant offers both savory and sweet options, drawing on the culture and ingredients located throughout Southeast Asia.

His newest location is in Las Vegas, which was opened at Caesar’s Palace located on the Las Vegas Strip in 2022.

Pastry innovation Following the creation of the cronut in 2013, Ansel continued his innovation in creating other staple menu items, namely the frozen s’mores, cookie shot and DKA.

The Cronut, which is trademarked is Dominque Ansel’s innovation that played a part in the bakery’s success. First launched in May 2013, it is a hybrid of doughnut and a croissant. In that year, it was named one of TIME Magazine’s best inventions of the year. After 9 days of its introduction, Ansel had trademarked the Cronut after seeing the hype that surrounded the release. Almost after its debut, there was a black-market economy of the Cronut based on Craigslist where there was an up charge for the Cronut.

The differentiation in the produce lies in the monthly changing flavor, which never repeats. The cronut is fried in grapeseed oil, and once cooked it is rolled in sugar, topped with a glaze, and filled with cream. It is only available within the Dominique Ansel stores, and there is a restricted number made each day, which is approximately 350.

The Frozen smore is a honey marshmallow that is encased in vanilla ice cream and rolled in chocolate pieces, and then is torched to order, which retails for $7.50.

The cookie shot is a chocolate chip cookie shaped like a shot glass and filled to order with milk made in house, which retails for $5.

Dominiques Kouign Amann, also known as the DKA shares similarities to a caramelized croissant, which is encased in a caramel iced crust. It is the restaurant’s best seller which retails for $6.