“NYC’s CooCoo Hunt for Cronut Treasure… The Cronut!”

The hunt for a Cronut® has been going on for a while now, since May 10, 2013, to be exact. The fluffy layered heaven-sent hybrid of Croissant + Donut = The Cronut®. Have you heard of it? Have you been so lucky to have tasted one? Or arrive too late? When I say late, I mean after 8:00 AM! With only 100 Cronuts served daily in the beginning, they now make 300 to 350 Cronuts®, yet the line still starts around 7:00 AM daily. 

I have lived here for years and walked past the bakery every morning. Never knowing that was where the infamous Cronut® lived. It was too late; I used to walk by around 9:30 AM. The Pastry Chef Dominique Ansel would have ensured the sidewalks were clear. 

We had moved out of state for a few years, and in 2018, I had the opportunity to return for a friend's wedding. Lucky and excited to have a day to myself, even without the kiddos, I promised to enjoy Manhattan! 

Taking full advantage of the day, I figured what better way than to start my day off at 7:00 AM in line for The Cronut®. Standing in line, I happily watched some early birds play basketball on the neighboring court and listened to music. Hidden in plain sight, I finally collected the legendary treasure.

It takes time to make a Cronut, so much so that the James Beard Award-Winning Chef Dominique Ansel published the secret recipe in his own cookbook. You can buy it at his meticulous pastry shop in SoHo on Spring St. between Sulivian and Thompson or online.

The Cronut was an exciting and almost familiar treat. You appreciate the Cronut when you realize the effortless transition through textures and flavors. The unique combinations complement one another so well that you unintentionally eat the whole thing, to where you don’t care if it's a donut or croissant at the end of the day. You just want to get up at 7 am to get yourself another one! 

Protected by a rolled-on layer of crispy sugar, the delicately fried dough resembles a donut. Like a croissant, the lite strip of sweet ganache is smooth and creamy before the slightly chewy dough. On the inside, the layers stay light and airy until reaching the second flavor-balanced Ganache.

All wrapped up into an impeccable soft, dense pastry. As dynamic as the city searching for it, you will never have the same flavor twice! As stated directly on their website, 

“Please note the Cronut® changes flavor every month, never repeating. There's no "regular" or "plain" flavor. There's one flavor per month, and as a general rule, the flavor you receive is the month of the Delivery Date.”

Still trying to remember the flavor I had. To give you an idea, these are their current flavors: 

For April 2022: the flavor is Passionfruit & Vanilla (filled with passionfruit jam and vanilla ganache). 

For May 2022: the flavor is Strawberry Poppyseed Mascarpone & Buttermilk, filled with strawberry poppyseed mascarpone ganache and buttermilk

From The Official "Dominique Ansel New York (Soho) based Bakery of Pastries" website. Have a taste for how they talk about the Cronut and find out how to plan to seek out a legendary Cronut treasure of your own. 

“The Cronut® pastry is the unique creation by Chef Dominique Ansel that many have described being a croissant-doughnut hybrid. After its launch on May 10, 2013, Cronut® pastry fans spanned the world from Berlin to Singapore, making it the most virally talked about dessert item in history.

The Cronut® brand and product is a registered trademark of Dominique Ansel Bakery internationally. As it is associated with innovation, we are proud that the Cronut® brand is affiliated with our bakery and baking philosophy to bring you constant creativity. Please beware of imitation items claiming affiliation with the bakery.” "Dominique Ansel New York (Soho) based Bakery of Pastries." 

Each Cronut® pastry retails for $6.50 (pre-tax), and there are three ways to score yourself one.

1. Visit Us at the Bakery

Every day, we offer freshly made Cronut® pastries at the bakery. The lines start outside as early as 1 hour before opening (we open at 8 am from Mon-Sat and 9 am on Sun). Please note that we are not officially open until our hours of operation and cannot service the line that starts earlier. As a rule of thumb, if you arrive before 7:30 am on a weekday, you have a great chance of getting the Cronut® pastry. (Weekends tend to be busier.) Please note there is a 2 Cronut® pastry per person limit for in-store purchases. When in line, please be considerate of the residents in the neighborhood and the others in the line. Do not cut or reserve spots for friends; we hope you don’t endorse any scalpers you may see. Our rule in terms of age cut-off is that if someone is old enough to eat pastry, they are free to purchase the pastry. Please do try to keep the sidewalk clear of obstruction, so there is ample room for passersby and keep your voice level to a minimum.

2. Get on the Pre-order List

Every Monday at 11 am, we offer preorders ONLINE at https://NYC.CronutPreorder.com. Please keep in mind we are taking pre-orders up to two weeks in advance. For example, on Monday, April 18th, we open preorders for pick-ups the entire week of Monday, May 2nd-Sunday, May 8th. Pre-orders fill up quickly; Please check the website for available dates and times. There is a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 12 Cronut® pastries for online preorders per person per week. We can only take one pre-order per person. All pre-orders are non-refundable and non-exchangeable, and the date of pick-up cannot be rescheduled. Please keep a clear note of your order date and time as we are unable to send out reminder emails due to the volume of our orders. Due to a large number of customer requests, we are unable to provide extra Cronut® pastry boxes for each order and charge an additional $1.00 (the direct price from our suppliers) for each extra custom Cronut® box. We will package each Cronut® in the appropriate size box for the full order. (Our online system is currently in beta testing and we experience a large amount of traffic so it may be timed out because of the inflow of customers. This is not because the website is broken. It is merely stalled because of the large traffic volume. Thank you for bearing with us!)

3. Place a large order (over 50)

Please email the shop at info@dominiqueansel.com. We require a minimum of one (1) month’s advance notice for large orders. For example, please email on May 1st for orders for the month of June (email early as many orders come in at 12 midnight). Orders will be confirmed based on a first-come-first-serve basis in the email list. Please include in your email: 1. preferred date/time of pick up; 2. the number of Cronut® pastries, and 3. a phone number so we can reach you to confirm the order and receive credit card information. Our staff will try to contact each customer by phone at the number provided for TWO attempts within 3 hours before moving on to the next order, and the spot is forfeited. In order to be fair to the large demand, we can only take one large order a month from each individual. Please expect to hear from us within 72 hours. Orders will be packaged in our bulk boxes and we charge an extra $1.00 for each custom box. Once again, preorders are non-refundable and non-exchangeable, and the dates of pick-up cannot be rescheduled. Our items cannot be resold or advertised without permission.

We are increasing the production of our Cronut® pastry each day! Currently, we make approximately 350 minimum, exclusively for the line daily at our bakery. Look for us nationwide as well, but please be wary that if you don’t see the Dominique Ansel Bakery affiliation, it is not the Cronut® pastry. https://www.dominiqueanselny.com/. 

Good Luck with your Cronut Hunt!