Coffee Shop in Astoria with some Sophistication!

Today we ventured out of the city into Astoria to find out for ourselves about George McKirdy’s new venture, Astor Bake Shop, which opened 2 weeks ago. As the name indicates, the café/bakery serves a wide variety of homemade pastries ranging from decadent brownies (more on that), homemade cakes, tarts, freshly baked breads, cookies, and muffins. In addition, “sloppy” burger sandwiches are also served which feature Pat La Frieda meat.

Being that George McKirdy has over 20 years experience as a pastry chef working in top notch places such as Tribecca Grill, Nobu,  and Blue Fin—made the Cjaps more than eager to try this place!

 Although we are avid chocoholics, we decided to first try the famed red velvet cake ($4) (it looked so good). As guest star Michael exclaimed, ‘This puts Crumbs to shame!’ Michael is a trusted authority on sweets, as he has a well trained palette and has been the recipient of many desserts that we were unable to finish throughout our expeditions. We agreed with Michael- the cake was delicious –it was served cold, which was refreshing. Additionally, it was not overly sweet and was perfectly moist. We really loved the frosting; it was a cream frosting that was a perfect compliment to the cake, it had just the perfect amount of sweetness. We really enjoyed this non chocolate treat.

Now on to the chocolate…….

Being chocoholics, we couldn’t resist trying the brownie ($2), despite having the cake  (that’s why we need to bike and walk everywhere). The brownie looked so wonderfully fudgy and decadent staring at us through the glass. We had bought the brownie, hoping to try it later in the day, however the brownie barely lasted an hour after purchase. This was the BEST brownie we have tried to date!  It was super fudgy and chocolaty- the chocolate used is of superb quality- it tasted like brownie batter but less sweet. Some may find this brownie to be rich, but we thought it was perfect.  Michael commented, ‘Wow, this is real deal’ (he ate half of this brownie in addition to eating more than half the red velvet cake and an Astor Burger)!

Astor bakery is a welcomed and much needed addition to Astoria! This place is serious about their sweets. George McKirdy bakes all pastries himself at the shop and is on premise. The cookies and tarts also look excellent. We would recommend trying any pastry that looks appealing as they are all baked on location and will be excellent. Prices are very good ranging from $1.75 to $4.00 (definitely cheaper than a lot of places in the city)!

Astor Bake Shop is definitely worth the trip. After stuffing your face here, we recommend taking a walk around Astoria Park which is about 2 short avenues away from the Shop (this is how we rationalize our indulgences).  Additionally, Astor Bake shop serves Stone Street Coffee from Red Hook Brooklyn, which is very good! We will definitely be back to sample more pastries.

http://www.astor-bakeshop.com/home.html