The Case for a Short Pastry Case
There are two kinds of pastry counters in Brooklyn. One is thirty items deep, lit like a jewelry display, and designed to make you stand there and deliberate. The other is a dozen things that someone decided were worth having every single day. Pier 69 Market runs the second kind, and we run it on purpose.
A short case means the croissant you get on a Tuesday is the same croissant you got last Thursday. It means nothing sits around waiting for a customer who might show up. And it means the pastry is doing the job it is actually built for, which is accompanying a cup of coffee rather than competing with lunch. We are a waterfront cafe at 10 Bay Ridge Ave, two blocks from Shore Road, and most of what leaves our counter in the morning is one drink and one thing to eat with it.
What Is Actually in the Baked Goods Case
Our baked goods list is on the full menu, but it is worth walking through it the way a regular would, by category rather than alphabetically.
Croissants and Apple Turnovers
The croissant is the anchor of the case. It is the pastry most people order without looking, and it is the one that pairs with the widest range of drinks. A croissant is mild, buttery, and structurally interesting in a way that a muffin is not: there is a crisp outside, a soft inside, and a texture change in between. That is why it holds up next to a strong espresso drink without either one losing.
The apple turnover is the other laminated item, and it behaves differently. It is sweeter, heavier, and closer to a dessert than a breakfast. If you order one at 7 AM you are having a dessert for breakfast, which is a legitimate choice, but it changes what you should drink with it. Go unsweetened on the coffee side when the pastry is doing the sweetening.
Muffins: Lemon Poppy, Pistachio and Double Chocolate
Muffins are the practical end of the case. They are sturdy, self-contained, and they do not shed. A muffin goes in a bag, rides a bike, sits on a bench at Owls Head Park for twenty minutes, and is still a muffin when you get to it. A croissant does none of those things gracefully.
The three directions are citrus, nut, and chocolate, and they are genuinely different orders rather than three flavors of the same idea. Lemon poppy is the brightest thing in the case and the one that works best mid-morning, when you want something that is not heavy. Pistachio is the richest of the three and the one to order if the muffin is standing in for a meal. Double chocolate is the one that reads as a treat, and it is the one kids reach for, which is also true of most items on our kids menu.
A short case means the croissant you get on a Tuesday is the same croissant you got last Thursday. Nothing sits around waiting for a customer who might show up.
Cookies: Black and White, Triple Chocolate Chip
The black and white cookie is a New York institution and the least pastry-like item in the case. It is soft, cake-adjacent, and split between vanilla fondant and chocolate fondant, and arguing about which side to eat first is part of the experience. It is also the single most portable thing we sell. If you are walking the promenade or catching the ferry, this is the order.
The triple chocolate chip cookie is the afternoon item. Pastries skew toward morning, but cookies do not, and a cookie at 3 PM with a cold brew is a completely different occasion than a croissant at 7 AM. There is also a cake slice listed under sides and desserts if you want something with a fork, and a Haagen Dazs cup if the weather is still doing what October in Bay Ridge sometimes does.
What to Drink With It
This is where most pastry orders go wrong, and it is an easy fix. The rule is simple: the sweeter the pastry, the less sweet the drink should be.
- Croissant: house drip, a cortado, or a flat white. The small milk volume keeps the espresso forward. If you are unclear on the difference between the last two, we wrote a whole piece on cortado versus flat white.
- Apple turnover: an Americano or straight espresso. The pastry is already sweet, so let the coffee be bitter and hot and get out of the way.
- Lemon poppy muffin: a Rishi tea rather than coffee. Earl Grey Green or Mystic Mint both go with citrus better than espresso does. Our Rishi tea guide breaks down the full list.
- Pistachio muffin: a cappuccino. The foam and the nut do something good together, and the cappuccino is light enough that the muffin stays the main event.
- Double chocolate muffin or triple chocolate cookie: cold brew, or a hot blended hot chocolate if you have fully committed. Cold brew is the better answer. Chocolate plus unsweetened cold coffee is one of the most reliable pairings there is.
- Black and white cookie: plain drip coffee. Nothing else. This is a hundred-year-old pairing and it does not need help.
Everything on the espresso side is built on La Colombe coffee, which skews smooth rather than sharp, and that is part of why these pairings work. A harsher roast would fight the butter in a croissant instead of sitting beside it.
Timing: When to Come for Pastries
We open at 6 AM Monday through Friday and 7 AM on weekends, and we are open until 9 PM every day. That is a wide window, and different hours suit different orders.
The 6 AM to 8 AM stretch is commuters, and the order is almost always a croissant or a muffin with a lidded coffee on the way to the R train or the ferry. If you want a specific item, this is the window to be in. A pastry case is finite, and the popular things move first. Our guide to early morning coffee in Bay Ridge covers that stretch in more detail.
Mid-morning, roughly 9 AM to noon, is the most relaxed time to actually sit with a pastry. It is also when people settle in with a laptop, which is a different use of the room than the commute rush. Afternoons belong to cookies. Evenings are quiet, and nothing is stopping you from having a croissant at 8 PM. If you want to know what is in the case before you walk over, call (718) 777-6969.
Which Pastries Survive the Walk to the Waterfront
Bay Ridge has one real advantage over most of Brooklyn for this: you can be at the water in five minutes. That makes takeaway the default, and not every pastry is built for it.
Travels well: cookies, then muffins. Both are dense, self-contained, and indifferent to being carried. These are the right orders for Owls Head Park, the Shore Road promenade, or the walk toward the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
Travels poorly: croissants and apple turnovers. Lamination is the whole point of both, and lamination means flakes, which means a mess in a bag and a different texture by the time you sit down. Eat these at a table, or within a block. If you want a full itinerary, our guide to things to do on the Bay Ridge waterfront pairs the walk with the food.
Pastries for a Group
Pastries are one of the easier things to order for a crowd, because they require no plates, no utensils, and no timing. They are a standard part of a catering order for an office breakfast, a school event, or a morning meeting, usually alongside coffee and the hot breakfast items.
One practical note from doing a lot of these: order variety rather than volume of a single item. Pastry preferences split hard between chocolate, fruit, and plain, and a box with all three directions covered beats a box of a dozen identical muffins every time. Our office breakfast guide has more on building an order for a specific headcount, and (718) 777-6969 is the fastest way to work it out directly.
The Short Version
Croissant with drip or a cortado. Lemon poppy muffin with tea. Chocolate anything with cold brew. Black and white cookie with plain coffee and no opinions. If you are walking to the water, get the cookie. If you are sitting down, get the croissant. Come find us at 10 Bay Ridge Ave, or see the hours and directions before you head over.
Something Sweet With Your Coffee
Croissants, muffins, turnovers and cookies alongside La Colombe coffee and Rishi tea, steps from the Bay Ridge waterfront. Visit us at 10 Bay Ridge Ave or order online for pickup and delivery.
