Left Bank Pastry

Gary Potter taught in a state penitentiary before he baked for a living. He started baking as a way to decompress, moved his family to Paris in 2006 to train at Le Cordon Bleu, and opened Left Bank in Olympia in 2011.

The rule since then has been simple. If it is not French, it is not happening. No bread, no chocolate chip cookies, nothing American. What there is instead runs past fifty varieties: croissants plain and almond and chocolate, palmiers, eclairs, macarons, tarts, quiches, brioche and almond pound cake, with butter from Normandy and chocolate from France and Switzerland. Summer berries come from Spooner Farms just up the road.

The kouign amann is the one people queue for, sold by the hundred and first to sell out. Potter starts at two in the morning and the last tray comes out around a quarter to seven. Food and Wine named the shop one of the hundred best bakeries in America.