In 2017, I was completely obsessed with French pastries.
If there was a new bakery in town, or a favorite shop had a new seasonal item, my brain just couldn’t let it go. I simply could not sit still knowing there was a delicious pastry only a few minutes from me that I hadn’t tried yet.
I would happily go on my own and devour said pastry (or two, or three.) But I found that it was actually more fun to go with a group of friends, because then you could (1) try more things and (2) nerd out about how great they were.
So I created the “Kouign Amann Krew,” a group of fellow pastry nerds with a very simple mission: visit a local bakery, buy a bunch of baked goods, and try them all together. Rinse, repeat.
Fortunately, when you live in San Francisco, there’s a lot of bakeries to choose from, from neighborhood stalwarts like Neighbor Bakehouse and Thorough Bread, established leaders like Craftsman and Wolves and B. Patisserie, and flashy newcomers like Le Dix-Sept and Juniper.
The Krew was really just my friend Hanah and me to start. This soon grew to five, eight, ten, and up to a dozen friends who were as obsessed with pastries as I was.
We did other activities, of course. We did a guided tour of the Dandelion Chocolate Factory. We gathered for Great British Bake Off watch parties. We went to the annual San Francisco Croissant Competition. But mostly we just visited local bakeries and ate together.
I loved how simple the model was. Someone would put up the Bat Signal (“Hey gang, Jane the Bakery has a new creme brûlée kouign amann!”), we’d find a date that most people could make, and we’d assemble at the spot.
That said, it feels like time to wrap up the Kouign Amann Krew. Life goes on, priorities change, new things to obsess about emerge.
I’m so grateful for the years of camaraderie and joy that the Krew brought me. To revel in simple pleasures with good people — flaky pastry, European butter, sunshine, laughter — that’s the good life.
