I want to talk about our bread sponsor for the Summer’s Twilight reading this Saturday. Choc-O-Pain are a new addition to the Van Vorst Park & Harsimus Cove neighborhoods in Jersey City, but oh my god are they welcome.
They’re the second store of a bakery based in Hoboken, and the new place is at 530 Jersey Avenue, between Newark and Columbus. It’s right next to that recently demolished building that we’re all baselessly hoping is going to be a Trader Joe’s.
You Guys, It’s SO GOOD
And they do the best bread. And pastries. And everything else. The first thing I said when I saw the display of baked goods was “Somebody here went to pastry school.” I’ve been buying their baguettes almost every day for weeks. Their croissants and pains au chocolat are crispy, tender, fluffy – everything you hope for and rarely see outside of France. The way I knew they were for real, though, was the tarte aux pommes. It’s a baked tart with apples exposed to the top, without crust, and American bakeries tend to undercook this sort of thing, and give you apples that are pretty, but that haven’t taken on any of the darker, almost black color that indicates real caramelization, and that tastes amazing. Choc-O-Pain brown their apples properly, and it shows in the taste.
When I decided to serve rillettes sandwiches at the Summer’s Twilight reading this Saturday at Art House, I wanted to use the best bread in the city, and so I asked Choc-O-Pain to sponsor the show. Having them on board means that we’re serving the best food we can, that we’ll be able to pay musicians that much better, and that you, our audience, will get a first hand taste of the best new bread in the neighborhood.
I view this as a public service. You guys have to taste this stuff. And then you have to to 530 Jersey Avenue and buy lots of bread and pastry all the time, because I want that store to thrive.
DO NOT make me go without my daily dose of this addictive bread!
Thank you.
See you on Saturday.