The Dish: A Croissant That Dabbles in the Dark Arts

Embrace the dark side of dessert.

For all the innovation that our food industry is famous for, you’d think we’d have a few more bakeries pushing the envelope. We have homages to France and we have natural covered, but where’s our cronut? In a strip mall on a nondescript section of the Westminster Highway in West Richmond, it turns out. That’s where you’ll find Smokehouse Sandwiches, the Garden City’s best purveyor of barbecue and one of the few places you can find the off-the-wall concoctions of the Elmo Baking Company.

The once-a-week solo act is the brainchild of former Thomas Haas pastry chef Elmo Bryan Pinpin, who, free from the strictures of classical European preparation, has gone bonkers with such oddities as Chicago Mix cookies (heavenly) and his signature double-baked croissants packed with things like the PB&J, hazelnut cocoa and flambéed banana, and this Darth Vader-inspired number: a black sesame charcoal creation that says, “I want to eat sugar, look badass and cleanse my liver at the same time.” The ball’s in your court, Dominique Ansel.

Look for the Elmo Baking Company to be opening its own storefront in the near future, but until then croissants must be ordered on Thursday for pickup at Smokehouse on Friday/Saturday via Facebook or Instagram. Cookies are available daily (praise be).