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I’m often
dismayed when I take a trip back to the U.S. and people tell me
they wonder why they can’t get good food where they live, like
they have in France. While it’s certainly true there aren’t bakeries on
every street corner in America (I think people would miss all those
24/7 drugstores and coffee shops), there are places that offer
fresh-baked goods, nice cheeses, wines, and chocolates. You just have
to scope them out.
 I was
happy to discover, in a somewhat off-beat part of Brooklyn, L’imprimerie,
a bakery that surprised even me. One day during my trip, I’d had a
great Detroit-style pizza lunch at Emmy
Squared with a friend (Tip:
Go for the Roni
Supreme with pepperoni and Calabrian chili) and wanted a
coffee afterwards. He said we could get one at the bakery, which was on
my list of places to visit. I was surprised when he said that, because
very few bakeries serve coffee in France. I forgot that about the States;
very few bakeries just sell bread or pastries, and send people on their
way. So, on the upside, you can multitask a pick up a coffee along with
your bread.
It’s nice
to have a place to sit and eat something, along with your coffee if you
want to stay and chat with a friend. And it’s also nice to give
people credit when they’re doing something well, as is happening in
many places around America.
 Last time
I was in New York, I was with some French friends who have a bakery in
Paris and we were talking about why there wasn’t high
quality bread readily available in the United States. I thought about
it for a while, and while we can get good bread in most cities, it’s
not something that people in America automatically put out on the table.
I have to remember to bring bread as a gift when I go to dinner parties
in America because I find myself searching for the bread basket. The
only snag is when they think it’s merely a gift, and don’t put any
out for the guests, including me. (I hope it’s not rude to bring it up.
Maybe I should arrive with it already sliced, in a basket?)
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