At this little Connecticut bakery the line forms early, and customers wait, mouths watering, to choose their treat from an array of croissants, pastries, breakfast sandwiches, desserts and more.
What’s that expression, abbreviated? IYKYK? If you know, you know. The Cornwall bakery opens at 7:30 a.m.
“I wait for them every week,” said Wayne Douglas, a resident of North Canaan, on a recent Friday morning. “They have the best sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches around.”
“They are very good,” said Lee Sullivan of Salisbury, who had stopped by for breakfast on her Yamaha motorcycle. “I can never finish mine.”
“They sell out of everything every week,” added Joe Charles of Litchfield, another Friday morning regular. “It’s important to get here early.”
The trio, who were seated at a picnic table by the entrance to the Blue Gate Farm Boulanger Pattisier, were among the many customers whose cars filled the parking lot.
It was a hot day, so the outdoor seating area was quiet.
But Appalachian Trail hiker “Sweets,” a woman from Germany, had found a delicious way to start her day before beginning the next leg of her trek, seated at a single table in the morning sun. She was toting a full backpack and was meeting other hikers, members of her “trail family.”
“I had coffee, and a bacon, cheese and egg sandwich, and I got a huge slice of cheesecake for later,” she said. “It was delicious. I’m ready for the day now.”
Boulanger Patissier is at Blue Gate Farm in Cornwall, Conn.. It is inside Ivy’s Collective, an antique business. (Emily Olson)
The bakery is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday until 2 p.m., and regardless of the weather or the season, it remains a popular stop.
The Boulanger Patissier at Blue Gate Farm opened three years ago inside Ivy’s Collective, an antique and collectibles shop and gallery on the corner of Route 7, just down the road from Cornwall Bridge and on the neck of the Housatonic River.
Owned by Ivy and Daniel Kramp, the couple offers estate finds, local artwork and a trove of vintage crystal, pottery, linens and collectibles. Outside, an old greenhouse has a “tag sale” with more antiques and treasures.
Yobana and Bruce Young at their bakery, the Boulanger Patissier at Blue Gate Farm in
Cornwall. (Emily Olson)
“We have a slogan, come for a croissant, leave with a couch,” Ivy Kramp said with a laugh. “But seriously, people come here for the community feeling. They meet their friends, they sit and talk. It’s a gathering place for sure.”
Baker and chef Bruce Young and his wife, Yobana Young, chose the location after they began selling their baked goods at the Washington Farmer’s Market. Before that, Young worked as a chef and baker for nearly 40 years at restaurants and bakeries near and far.
Boulanger Patissier opened in 2023, and it didn’t take long for people to realize what Young was making.
“Just look at this,” said Melissa Kimma, a Sharon resident who visits every week on her way to work. She was holding her prize inside a white baker’s box: a flaky mascarpone cheese tart topped with whipped cream and fat red raspberries.
“I came in for something else, but when I saw this, I had to have it,” she said. “I’ve been coming here every Friday since they opened.”
Everyone who walks in the door heads straight for the bakery: shopping can wait. The display case is full, but it won’t be for long.
“I wait all week for this place,” said customer Mark Orth. “Everything’s fresh. There’s a ham and cheese croissant that’s the bomb – the ham, the cheese, the bagel topping, oh my God. So good.”
There are croissants and French baguettes, specialty croissants, and cream pastries topped with candied orange slices. There are apple turnovers, little cake rolls filled with raspberry jam, and seven-layer crepe cakes with creamy filling. Young also bakes huge chocolate chip cookies, crispy loaves of bread and special cakes.
Boulanger Patissier is at Blue Gate Farm in Cornwall, Conn.. It is inside Ivy’s Collective, an antique business. (Emily Olson)
On this particular day, the case also had individual almond cream-filled tarts topped with apricot, and Young’s “flamiche”, which features a flaky pastry crust filled with eggs, crème fraiche, leeks, chives and cheese, perfect for brunch or lunch.
“It’s what a quiche should be,” Young said.
While Yobana Young, Shannan Miller and Pedro Aguilar run the counter, Young is busy in the bakery room, making dough for croissants and other things. Aside from the baguettes, the croissant is the top seller, he said.
“I make croissants every day; there are about 25 varieties, and they sell out every day,” he said. “I make muffins; the blueberry muffins are very popular. I make the blueberry muffin you always wish you’d get. This is the one.”
The breakfast sandwich is made with his homemade bread. “I don’t know anyone who makes bread like I do,” he said. “French butter, local eggs; those are why the egg sandwich tastes so good. I use quality and local things as much as I can. It makes a big difference.”
As the sole baker, Young said, he gets lots of help from Yobana and his staff. But because he makes all the food himself from scratch, he can only open on the weekends; it takes the rest of the week to prepare.
“Tuesday’s stock up day; Wednesday and Thursday are baking days,” he said. “I get up at 3 a.m. to start, and I go all day, six days a week.
“When we were at the farmer’s market in Washington, we had a line of people before we were even set up,” he said. “It’s pretty much the same thing here. People are always waiting for us to open the door … “We’re as busy in February as we are today,”
When customers walk in, Young said, they look like expectant, excited children.
“A bakery should bring out the child in you,” the baker said. “You can see people standing in line, looking at all the things behind the glass case, and their mouths are open like, ‘Oh, wow, look at that, what’s that?’ It’s a great feeling to see people so happy.
“People love our food,” he said proudly. “There’s nothing better than that.”
Young doesn’t do special orders or catering. He doesn’t hold things aside, either.
“Just getting everything done, so we can sell our food, that’s what’s important,” he said. “We simply don’t have time to do any more than we’re already doing.”
The couple resides in Warren at Blue Gate Farm. Finding the space on Route 7 was a great opportunity that became the perfect fit for the pâtissier, said Young.
“The previous owners of this building did a big renovation, but they had trouble finding a tenant, and then we came in,” he said. “It’s a great fit for us.
“When we first opened, there was no one in the building but us, and we didn’t even have a sign up for the first six months,” Young remembered. “People found us anyway.”
Yobana Young helps her husband as much as she can. “Bruce does all the baking, and we do everything else,” she said with a laugh.
“The positive presents of the staff and the way they know everyone’s name and what they like – that’s why people love it here,” said Bruce Young. “Yobana makes everyone feel welcome; so do Shannan and Pedro. We have so many regulars.”
Young said he has been asked many times why he’s not open every day, or why he doesn’t expand his offerings.
“I have to run the bakery this way; it’s the best way,” he said. “We need the rest of the week to get ready, and I think people understand that. They’re used to the way we do things here.”
Blue Hills Bakery Boulanger Patissier is located at Ivy’s Collective, 2 U.S. 7, Cornwall. For information call the bakery at 860 672 0400, or Ivy’s at 646-783-9423.
