St. Honoré: croissants and baguettes on NW Thurman

Westside croissant lovers have argued for years about which laminated pastry is worth crossing the river for. Eastsiders can get one on Division, but St. Honoré Boulangerie's flagship is on the corner of Northwest 23rd and Thurman. Dominique Geulin opened it in 2003 and named it for the patron saint of bakers. He grew up above a family bakery in Étretat on the Normandy coast, trained in France, helped open Le Panier in Portland years earlier, and holds a Meilleur Ouvrier de France title in boulangerie, a competition title that carries real weight with French bakers. Later locations followed downtown, on Division, in Lake Oswego and on Macadam, and the Thurman shop, with its yellow awning and patio, is the original.

The shop at 2335 Northwest Thurman looks like a French neighborhood bakery. Floor-to-ceiling windows let daylight spill onto the flagstone floors, and baguettes and boules stand in wicker baskets. A big wooden communal table fills the middle of the room, surrounded by antique pieces and vintage café chairs, and a statue of Saint Honoré stands by the European oven. The bakers roll dough where you can watch them. The pastry case holds butter croissants, almond croissants covered in toasted almond slices, pains au chocolat, tarts, quiche, and canelés if any are left.

Order the croissant. A plain one shows you how the lamination turned out, with a shattering outside, a honeycomb inside and a deep yellow color, and if you already know you want the almond, get that too. Then pick up a baguette (flour, water, salt, yeast, and it's the vegan loaf on the board), because this is a boulangerie and you should leave with bread. After that there's the rest of the French menu, a croque monsieur for lunch, a tart if you're sitting down, or coffee on the heated, mostly outdoor patio when the weather on 23rd cooperates. Some mornings a croissant and a coffee in the shop is plenty.

If you live on the eastside, visit the eastside location and skip the special trip, and if you're already on 23rd, come here. The flagship is open 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, which is long for a Portland bakery, so it works for a weekday stop as well as a weekend one. The line on a sunny 23rd morning can be long, but it moves.

Part of the charm of St. Honoré is that it has no interest in inventing a new pastry. Geulin built a French neighborhood bakery on a Portland corner, with the baking done in view and the saint standing next to the oven. Order the croissant, and a baguette if you're feeding people later.

The essentials are on the St. Honoré Boulangerie page.