Nuvrei: the kouign-amann, in the new room

Nuvrei is the pastry stop Portland fans have been wondering how to do ever since the original Pearl headquarters closed, and we can FINALLY say the kouign-amann is still the one we will not talk ourselves out of — you just have to CHECK the address first! Marius Pop’s longtime shop at 404 NW 10th ended its run on December 31, 2025, after more than twenty years in that room. The bakery inside the Portland Visitor Center at 1122 SW Harvey Milk Street stayed open, and Pop has said he is shopping for a bigger space that could land back in the Pearl. That is a plan, not a pin we can drop on your Saturday, so confirm the counter before you go, then walk in ready to read the glass.

Pop built this place. Romanian-born and Portland-raised, he went to culinary school downtown, landed an internship with François Payard in New York, stayed long enough to learn pastry the hard way, and came back to open Nuvrei in the mid-2000s — first as a wholesale operation that quietly upgraded the city’s coffee-shop cases, then as the Pearl counter people actually stood in. There was an upstairs café and a downstairs Mac Bar for Parisian macarons and warm croissants. The current chapter is smaller and more mobile, but the pastry brain is the same: French technique used as a platform for flavors that feel a little fashion-runway, a little Portland.

Walk up to the case and we can also see why people used to call this shop a pastry mecca in miniature. The glass is huge and crowded — croissants lined up like a collection, canelés in their little dark molds, macarons in tidy rows, fruit danishes when the fruit looks like it came from a farm. The rose croissant wears a pink glaze with sugar crystals that catch the light, and the matcha and sesame versions sit there looking like someone actually flavored the dough, not just the topping. The kouign-amann, when it is out, has those caramelized corners and a tender center that is the whole reason we came. The coffee smells like a real program, and there is never as much seating as the line wishes there was. It feels super pastry-first, not café-first, and that is the point!

Out of all of those iconic little sculptures in the case, the must-get is the kouign-amann. If they have it, THAT is the one! We do not “maybe get it next time,” because next time it is gone — sugar and butter and lamination taken far enough that the corners caramelize and the center stays tender. If it is not in the case, we move to the croissants, because this is a croissant shop as much as it is a kouign shop. Rose, matcha, sesame, almond, chocolate — those are not garnish stunts if the lamination is right. They are flavored doughs, and you can taste whether the bakery meant them. Take the one that matches how you drink coffee, or take two if you are meeting someone who “just wants a taste.”

Canelés if they are in the case, because Nuvrei has been in that conversation in this city for years — crisp outside, custard-soft inside. Macarons, because Pop built a whole downstairs macaron habit into the history of this shop. A practical case strategy, because the glass is huge and your willpower is not: kouign first, croissant second, one small thing third. If you start at the far end and work backward, you will talk yourself into four items you cannot carry. We have done that, and we are not proud!

Know this before you go: pastry sells down, seating is limited, and this is not the shop where we camp with laptops. If you only have one pastry stop on a downtown afternoon, this is still the one we point at — just make sure you are pointing at the right door. Take the kouign if they have it, take a rose or sesame croissant if you want the Nuvrei version of the form, and take a canelé if you want something that fits in a palm and still feels like a project. Then get back on the sidewalk before you start treating downtown like a food hall!

Want the short version? It’s on the Nuvrei page.