This is the time of year for fluffy white stuff, whether wafting down from the sky or floating in steaming mugs of hot chocolate. In Baltimore, house-made marshmallows are everywhere, including Artifact Coffee in Hampden, where marshmallow fluff tops cups of hot chocolate, and Stone Mill Bakery in Lutherville, where the airy confections are perfectly paired with Valrhona cocoa and steamed milk.

At Sacré Sucré in Fells Point, the delicious delights have moved beyond the cocoa cup and now come in a variety of inventive flavors—marbled with ribbons of matcha, Earl Grey, caramel, or yuzu.

“We started making them when we were going to the farmers market,” says bakery co-owner Manuel Sanchez. “We didn’t want to sell just macarons, which is what we’re known for—we also needed something that was easy enough for us to make at home. Our first batch was so good, we started selling them.”

The marsh mallow, Althaea officinalis, is a wild plant that grows in wet, marshy environments. Through the centuries, different cultures, including the Greeks and Egyptians, have used the plant to treat many ailments, including wounds, inflammations, insomnia, and sore throats. As far back as 2,000 B.C.E., the Egyptians turned them into edible art by squeezing sap from the mallow plant and mixing it with nuts and honey.

The first iteration of the modern marshmallow was invented in the 19th century by the French, who whipped the sap (plus eggs and sugar) into a fluffy candy mold. Gelatin, which gave the confection its squishy texture, soon replaced the mallow root plant, while corn syrup replaced sap, allowing for easier production. (To date, more than 90 million marshmallows are sold annually, according to the National Confectioners Association.) By the early 1900s, marshmallows made their way to the U.S., and soon gave rise to items like s’mores, Moon Pies, and Marshmallow Fluff.

Sanchez sees the spongy sweet as a blank canvas with its own personality. “For me, the appeal is all about having these soft and fluffy marshmallows in different flavors,” he says, “and the fact that something you traditionally see as a candy has now become more of a dessert you can eat on its own.”

Two hours before dawn in the second-floor kitchen of their Fells Point pâtisserie, Sacré Sucré, Manuel Sanchez and Dane Thibodeaux are piping pâte à choux and making caramel. Thibodeaux has already cut and decorated the opera cakes: strata of cake, ganache, buttercream, and chocolate layered like a study in geology. The room is quiet and kept purposefully cool, the windows still dark.

On this Wednesday in March, it’s surprisingly peaceful for a pastry kitchen, but then much about Sacré Sucré is surprising. That a pastry shop of this caliber exists in a Baltimore harbor rowhouse. That it’s owned and operated almost entirely by two local men. And that those men are self-taught, having learned their craft not at a Parisian école, but through cookbooks and YouTube.

Sanchez and Thibodeaux opened their shop in January, after moving the pâtisserie from Fleet Street to Fell Street, half a mile south. Before that Sanchez, 36, worked as a computer engineer and Thibodeaux, 42, as a hotel manager. They first fell in love with each other in Baltimore and then, on a trip to France, with macarons, the dainty French meringue sandwich cookies. That love turned into a hobby and then a fixation—as the two, unable to find Paris-quality macarons at home, learned how to make the delicacies themselves.

Sacré Sucré’s second floor is impressive: A wooden staircase ascends to a light-filled, updated kitchen outfitted with a state-of-the-art cooler and proofer; a three-tier deck oven; a mixer the size of a washing machine; counters with KitchenAid mixers; chemistry class cabinets stocked with colorings, gelling agents, aromas, and spices; and speed racks loaded with bags of chocolate, couvertures (a kind of tempered chocolate), tart shells, and components of the various pastries.

“You get better with the years,” says Sanchez as he dips frozen orbs of cherry-blossom mousse into a mauve mirror glaze. “I look back at 2018 and think, this looks so bad.”

For him, as with so many of us, Instagram functions as both archive and inspiration.

“Manny is the master piper; I don’t pipe,” says Thibodeaux, who’s splattering silver powder across the tops of the pale-blue petits gâteaux called Planèt Bleu like an Abstract Expressionist let loose in a kitchen. After fanning the cakes dry, he lowers concentric rings of white chocolate, then lays tiny bits of edible silver on the pinnacles of the confections.

“People think it’s aluminum foil,” says Sanchez. “It does look like it,” says Thibodeaux, who finishes decorating a tray of chocolate éclairs, then goes downstairs to make himself and Sanchez espresso drinks, a break he takes once every morning during production. (Another aspect of being a pâtissier means monitoring not only sleep-deprivation, but caffeine and sugar consumption.)

By this point, light has crept through the windows and many of the morning’s pastries are finished, then loaded onto sheet trays and into the carefully calibrated refrigerator. The Viennoiseries, made with laminated dough, are now proofed and baked in the deck oven. They include croissants, pain au chocolat, almond croissants, the Swedish-style cinnamon rolls called kanelbullar, Breton-style Kouignamann, and, perhaps best of all, monkey bread—those crazy buns made of dough twirled into spires, dusted with cardamom sugar, and drizzled with caramel. They look less like pastries than miniature churches designed by Antoni Gaudí.

As Sanchez pipes vanilla mascarpone cream onto lime-green matcha cakes for the matcha tiramisu, one of the new spring items, he describes a recent trend in pastry that calls for manual assembly rather than the flexible silicone molds that have long been standard practice.

“Cédric Grolet uses a lot of free-hand and piping,” he says, referencing the French pastry chef who, along with Cronut-inventor Dominique Ansel, is at the top of the pastry game. (Grolet’s Instagram has over 10 million followers.) “The hand-forming provides a more human touch and differentiates between pastry chefs, as everyone uses the same molds. We’re transitioning.”

They’ve also moved toward using natural colors and flavors, and less sugar, not only in the pastries—which are fruit-forward and appreciably less sweet than other versions—but in the macarons that have been a staple at Sacré Sucré since the beginning.

That beginning was in 2011, when Sanchez and Thibodeaux first met in Hampden. Sanchez, who is from Puerto Rico and has a master’s degree in computer security from Johns Hopkins, had landed a job in Baltimore.

“Government cyber stuff,” he says. Thibodeaux,a native of Louisiana, had gone to Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island for culinary school—which is distinct, it should be said, from pastry—and was working at Mt. Washington Conference Center. “When we started living  together, Dane used to cook all the time,” says Sanchez of Thibodeaux, who started cooking with his family as a child.

The pair, who  married in 2015, began cooking together, making pasta and jams, and everything they ate at home was made from scratch. Shortly after they married, Sanchez took a job in Northern California. On weekends, the couple started making pastries and collecting cookbooks.

“And then we traveled to France,” says Sanchez, “and we had our first real macaron.” “In the Lyon marketplace, walking around, not even thinking about the pastries,” adds Thibodeaux. “We didn’t go there for the pastries; we went there for the wine.”

That macaron, a fig macaron, “blew us away,” says Thibodeaux, and became the catalyst for a macaron obsession—not just consuming them but learning how to make them. “We couldn’t figure out how they put figs into a macaron,” says Thibodeaux. “And that started [the questions]: What is a macaron? How do you make a macaron?”

Back in California, they started baking. “I failed like 10 times with that [first] recipe. And then it just became a challenge,” says Sanchez. “And then I started bringing them to my coworkers. I didn’t know it at the time, but they were macaron fanatics. Science and computer people, they get into certain things.” Sanchez’s co-workers not only loved the macarons, but started buying them, too.

Soon the pair began selling the macarons at area farmers markets, eventually expanding their repertoire to include hand-cut marshmallows and a simple pound cake. “[People were] like, Who are you? Are you French? But then they’d try them,” says Sanchez.

After two years in California, the couple started thinking about opening a business—and moving back to Baltimore. “We knew that Baltimore didn’t offer [a dedicated macaron shop] at that time,” Sanchez says, “and I wasn’t done with Baltimore.” So they came back, found a corner rowhouse on Fleet Street in Fells—and, in 2018, opened Sacré Sucré.

At the start, the shop had a small menu: the macarons, which drove the business, éclairs, and tea, another of Thibodeaux’s interests. After lobbying from customers, they added an espresso menu and started making croissants, eventually buying a dough-laminating machine—an expensive undertaking, especially because, along with its owners being self-taught, Sacré Sucré is entirely self-funded. (Thibodeaux also sews Sacré Sucré’s Hedley & Bennett-style aprons himself.)

So there they were, open four days a week, making boutique pastries largely by hand and by themselves, selling eight croissants a day in a Baltimore rowhouse, and wondering how long they could survive.

“For the first two years, nobody came to our store,” says Sanchez, though neighbors would come in, buy a few things (special-occasion macarons, one of those eight croissants) and offer support. “And during those two years, I was in the kitchen, making stuff constantly. Dane was like, ‘Why are you making more product? We have no customers.’ And I was like, ‘Well, they’re gonna come. You just have to wait.’”

And then the pandemic hit, which, as it turned out, saved the business. “Once the masks came on and the doors opened,” says Thibodeaux, “we didn’t stop.” “I think there was a bakery wave in Baltimore, and in the U.S.,” says Sanchez, recalling the immediate aftermath of the COVID shutdown, when folks stayed home baking sourdough bread, watching The Great British Baking Show, and ordering from Grubhub.

“On the weekends,” says Sanchez, “we would have lines outside.”

As business grew, so did the pastry case, as Sanchez and Thibodeaux added classic French confections like Paris-Brest, Ispahan, canelés de Bordeaux, Mont-Blanc, plus king cakes, galettes, and more, not to mention macarons in flavors like calamansi, matcha, and orangeblossom. It wasn’t long before they outgrew not only that case but the rowhouse.

With most of the production behind them that Wednesday morning, Thibodeaux heats the bowl of a metal teaspoon over a heat gun, then presses it into a row of cremeaux teardrops decorating more éclairs. He fills the cavities with house-made dulce de leche, then sets the tray of pastries out for the staff to take downstairs when the shop opens at 9 a.m.

Meanwhile, Sanchez, now wearing black Valrhona “chocolate gloves,” is affixing shards of white chocolate onto the mauve globes of cherry-blossom mousse that have become the Sakura petits gâteaux. Between the heat guns, pylon-orange immersion blenders the size of bowling pins, and the electric paint sprayer they use for egg-washing the croissants and pain au chocolat, the kitchen looks less like a  quaint pâtisserie than it does the electrical aisle of a Home Depot.

The new Sacré Sucré expanded the available space, from 1,200 to 5,000 square feet, and includes a third floor with a massive walk-in cooler, an office, and a chilled room for the dough-laminating machine.

“THEY’RE THE GOLD STANDARD FOR AESTHETICS. THEY MAKE ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL THINGS.”

Their staff has grown to a dozen, including Nicolas Tupin, a French pastry chef hired to help make the Viennoiserie. Born in Reims, outside of Paris, Tupin went to pastry school in Grenoble, worked for a dozen years in Miami, then moved to Baltimore to be closer to his wife’s family in Towson. He came to Sacré Sucré because “they bake everything from scratch. That’s really important,” he says, and not always the case in American bakeries. Having Tupin means that Thibodeaux and Sanchez have more time to work on their pastries, though “Manny and he fight over how long to bake the croissants,” says Thibodeaux, smiling.

Downstairs, the small crew of staffers have loaded the pastry case and fired up the espresso machines and the soft-serve ice cream machine, a new addition to the repertoire. The ice cream, in flavors like mango and pink grapefruit, is swirled into “croix-cones,” made from toasted halved croissants, and decorated with miniature pink macaron shells. (“Pierre Hermé puts them on his gelato, so I figured we can, too,” says Sanchez of the famed French pastry chef, who specializes in macarons.)

The shop is also now open at 7 a.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays, when the case is filled with scones, pound cake, and individual quiches, a homier menu that gives the customers a change of pace and the bakers a break from the more intricate pastry work.

“They’re the gold standard for aesthetics. They make absolutely beautiful things,” says Ovenbird Bakery’s Keiller Kyle of Sacré Sucré. Kyle not only knows something about making pastries, but also about jigsawing a bakery into an old Baltimore rowhouse.

“What they were doing in the [former] space they were doing it in—I have incredible empathy for that,” says Kyle, whose bakery first opened in Little Italy, until production outgrew the rowhouse basement and Kyle moved it to a larger space in Highlandtown. Kyle, like Sanchez and Thibodeaux, intentionally opened in an old-school Baltimore neighborhood—and in an old-school Baltimore building—rather than in an area more designed for shopping and tourism: Whitehall Mill, say, or Harbor East.

Not everyone has been as understanding of Sacré Sucré’s need for larger digs. Before they could open in January, the owners found themselves mired in a drawn-out fight with their new neighbor over plans to enlarge the pâtisserie’s second-floor kitchen (at issue is the neighbor’s garden view and historic-home property value).

Sanchez and Thibodeaux say this expansion is necessary for them to begin baking bread and making sandwiches for a lunch menu. What’s more, they note, the city approved the proposal. As the conflict played out, a neighborhood petition circulated against the bakery’s liquor license, which predated the pâtisserie but had been restricted when the location was a short-lived burger bar. (Before that, the location had been a tavern; Thibodeaux and Sanchez bought the building hoping to re-activate the liquor license and offer cocktails and natural wines with their desserts.) Then another petition circulated in favor of the bakery.

“We’re two people; we’re not H&S,” says Thibodeaux of the impasse, which is ongoing. “From worrying about croissants, now I’m going to get into politics? It’s a lot of things that we never thought about when we wanted a bakery,” says Sanchez.

The customers, at least, aren’t complaining. On Easter morning, the dining room was crowded with folks lining up for holiday pastries, including egg-shaped macarons in pastel colors.

Boomer Kennedy, a retired auto mechanic from Patterson Park, was sampling a few of the confections. Kennedy had been one of Sacré Sucré first customers at the old location. “I went every day for a while; I couldn’t stay away,” says Kennedy. She appreciates the craftsmanship more than most, as she went to pastry school and was one of the opening pastry chefs at Bouchon, Thomas Keller’s lauded bakery in Yountville, California.

“The pastries aren’t too sweet, which is a really good sign,” she says. “They’re paying attention to taste; they don’t just seduce you with the sugar high.”

The promise of sweets may get you in the door, but it’s the technique, the mastery of flavors, and the artistry that have become the draw.

One look at the jewel-box pastry case—filled with vertical rows of confections in a palette of colors, many now shaped like spring flower—and that artistry is more than evident, a display that seems too pretty to eat, until you have a taste and, within moments, a faint trail of pastry flakes and meringue crumbs is all that’s left behind.

Hard to say whether it’s the aftermath of the pandemic or just Baltimore’s need to carbo-load, but lately Baltimore is a boomtown for bakeries.

From Fells Point to Hamilton, local bakeries are relocating to bigger spaces or opening second or even third spots to sate sweet tooths and bread cravings.

Maillard Pastries recently opened a second location in Hamilton, Sacré Sucré moved to a larger space in historic Fells Point, and Roggenart Bakery debuted a fifth location in Mt. Vernon. And then there’s Ovenbird Bakery, which went from a tiny spot in Little Italy to debuting a space in East Baltimore that’s 10 times larger than the original.

“When we opened in 2020, we were more of a community neighborhood bakery, but the concept keeps being re-imagined as we try to keep up with the enthusiasm from customers,” says Keiller Kyle, Ovenbird’s owner. “We’ve created a hub of baking and retail that’s now more of a café.”

These days, the baker estimates his Highlandtown kitchen produces some 200 to 300 loaves a day, including focaccias, baguettes, and sourdough, plus 250 or so bagels for both the Highlandtown and Little Italy locations.

Kyle, a former bird biologist who got into baking as a sideline in 2016, sees himself fitting into the continuum of Baltimore bakers who did things the traditional way, making bread with natural starters and shaping loaves by hand.

“There’s a heritage here that carries over,” he says. “In Baltimore there are Greek, German, Italian, and Jewish bakeries. We are not necessarily anchored in any one baking heritage, so we make challah on Fridays, while also shaping darker rye breads from the German heritage. We’re also drawing on the Turkish baking heritage in our pastries. We celebrate all these traditions since we are a reflection of the city in which we are baking.”

Lavender is not just for your potpourri dish anymore. Lately the edible herb is showing up everywhere from the lavender-almond shortbread at Little Italy’s Ovenbird Bakery to the lavender lemonade at Green House Juice Cafe in Charles Village to the iced oat-lavender-vanilla coffee at Atwater’s in Belvedere Square.

“The use of floral notes in food is trending right now,” says Manuel Sanchez, co-owner of Sacré Sucré, whose lavender macarons (pictured) are a top-seller. “And it’s not just lavender. Herbal flavors like rose, lemon verbena, and sage add an extra layer to the tasting experience.”

Sanchez also enjoys adding the herb to various beverages at his Fells Point shop. “We make a lavender lemonade with yuzu,” he says. “And a lavender London Fog with Earl Grey tea.”

While lavender’s vibrant hue has been boosted by social media in the 21st century, the sweet-smelling herb, a close cousin to mint, has been celebrated for over 2,500 years. The ancient Egyptians used lavender for perfume and during the mummification process. In ancient Greece it was used for healing backaches and insomnia. The Romans used lavender for healing baths, hence the name, which derives from the Latin verb lavarare, meaning “to wash.” The Romans also used lavender oil in soaps and for cooking and carried it with  them throughout the Roman Empire. But the idea of eating the tiny purple flower buds is relatively new.

“Cooking with lavender takes some restraint,” says Sanchez, whose lavender is sourced from Provence, France. “It has a natural bitterness—if you eat the bud by itself, it will taste strong and bitter if you use too much of it. It’s one of those flavors that if you don’t taste it at first and then you add more, you can go over the line. It can go from nice to bad in no time.”

The dining scene continues to soar, and, oh, what a year it was to eat—and drink—in Baltimore. What didn’t I eat this year? From foie gras and snails to matcha ice cream and crab cakes with succotash, I enjoyed it all. But a few things stand out, and there’s a theme to my picks here. Life is complicated enough—when it comes to dining out, this was the year I craved simple sandwiches, comfort food, and mezcal-based cocktails to wash it all down. In looking back, who knew that celery—a vegetable of last resort—would play a starring role on my best bites list?

The Mezcalita at Clavel

I eat in restaurants for a living, so I try not to order the same dishes (or drinks) again and again when I’m dining out. That’s how I came to discover the mezcalita. The margarita at Clavel is likely my favorite liquid on the planet, but I branched out this year and moved on to the mezcalita, an impossibly smoky, sweet, and spicy concoction that should be savored with every sip. If I’m being completely honest, I originally ordered my go-to margarita at this Remington hotspot, but the mezcalita was brought to the table instead. Talk about happy accidents.

The Clam Dip at True Chesapeake Oyster Co.

It’s hard to find a good clam dip—or any clam dip for that matter—outside of New England, so I couldn’t resist trying this offering at the seafood-centric True Chesapeake in Whitehall Mill. This version, an old family recipe that comes from owner Patrick Hudson’s grandmother, was loaded with fat and luscious clams. And the house-potato chips, impossibly crispy and nicely salted, were the perfect foil for dunking and cutting the richness of the creamy dip.

The Fried Chicken Sandwich at The Choptank

Who gets a fried chicken sandwich at a crabhouse? I do. Making good fried chicken is an art form, and chef Andrew Weinzirl has demonstrated it at this new upscale crab house in Fells Point. An air-chilled, buttermilk-brined breast allows the meat to stay moist and stand up to the coating. A tangy mumbo sauce adds heat and a house-made slaw adds crunch. Think heaven in a bun.

Cornmeal Fried Oysters at Charleston

No one knows how to fry an oyster better than James Beard-nominated chef Cindy Wolf at this Harbor East gem. With six to an order, and accompanied by a kicky cayenne mayonnaise, they’re all too easy to eat like candy. Learning some restraint takes willpower, but I’ve learned to savor each and every bite—it leaves me with less longing between visits.

Falafel Salad at The Corner Pantry

This sweet spot in the Lake Falls Village shopping center is one of my favorite stops for creative and always fresh salads. Chef Neil Howell is a Brit, but it seems he’s also mastered Middle Eastern cuisine. His house-made falafel on a bed of green with tahini dressing is delicious. No shortcuts are taken here, even the pita chips are house-made.

Pesce al Brodetto at Limoncello

This Locust Point newcomer that celebrates the treasures of Southern Italian coastal cooking has been great straight out of the gate. To wit, the pesce al brodetto, a beautiful bowl rife with Manila clams, calamari, head-on shrimp, scallops, fish, tomatoes, and saffron broth. Given the different cooking times for each type of seafood, it’s a dish that can be easily overcooked, but is cooked to perfection here. The accompanying grilled bread adds the final grace note.

The Tilted Burger at The Tilted Row

When is a cheeseburger more than a cheeseburger? When it’s the cheeseburger coming from the kitchen at Bolton Hill’s new gastropub The Tilted Row. Hard to say whether it’s the addition of pimento cheese, the smoky bacon or mile-high mound of onions, the crunchy pickles, or the proprietary sauce that makes it work so well. Or maybe it’s just the alchemy of it all.

The Brussels Sprouts at Birroteca

Just when I thought that I’d eaten enough Brussels sprouts for the rest of my life, I went back for one more serving at Birroteca. This dish, flash-fried Brussels drizzled with chili oil, sitting in a swirl of black garlic aioli and topped with coppa, was my go-to appetizer at this artisanal pizza spot for many years, but I hadn’t been in some time. After the recent passing of its owner Robbin Haas, I went as an homage. It was as good as ever and a fitting legacy of a beloved restaurateur.

Raspberry Macarons (Or Any Macarons) at Sacré Sucré

Everyone and their uncle likes to call a cookie a macaron, but very few are the real deal. These are. Spouses Dane Thibodeaux and Manuel Sanchez use real fruit fillings and no artificial ingredients for their confections, which come in a variety of delectable flavors including salty caramel, vanilla, chocolate, and lemon. I love the burst of tangy raspberry to offset the sweetness, plus, I’m pretty sure it counts as my daily fruit serving.

The Celery Salad at Le Comptoir du Vin

There’s a reason that Station North’s tiny boîte, Le Comptoir du Vin, became an almost overnight sensation, landing on Bon Appetit’s Hot 10 List and earning a spot on Esquire’s list of Best New Restaurants in America. It’s that good. But likely its star status came from, of all things, this celery salad, flecked with pistachios and dates and coltura (anchovies). It’s a study in salt and sweet—a humble salad that’s also incredibly refreshing. Really, the best of my best bites.

OPEN

Gangster Vegan Organics: A franchise of Gangster Vegan Organics will open in Cross Street Market on August 23. The menu will include items that are organic, unprocessed, raw, soy, and gluten-free. The spot is owned by husband-wife duo, James and Taneea Yarborough. Taneea is a survivor of ovarian cancer who switched to a plant-based diet as part of her wellness regime.

FOOD NEWS

Ekiben Pop-Up at Fadensonnen: Steve Chu and his business partner Ephrem Abibe at Ekiben are launching a new Taiwanese noodle bar pop-up at Lane Harlan’s Fadensonnen in Old Goucher every Wednesday, for the next six weeks. The new project is called Ojichan, which means grandad in Japanese. Look for handmade wheat noodles with ground pork, scallions, and soy egg. The noodles are served cold to retain their bouncy texture and served with a warm broth. “Ephrem and I had a hankering for the super bouncy noodles we had in Taiwan, but couldn’t find in America, so we decided to make them,” said Chu on his Instagram page. The announcement of the pop-up led one Instagrammer to comment, “You guys are public servants.”

New Beer Garden: A beer garden is planned for the 108-year-old American Ice Building at 2100 West Franklin Street in West Baltimore. The space will include an events area and art hub under a proposed $18.7 million project, according to the Baltimore Business Journal. “It is a diamond in the rough,” Washington D.C. developer Ilay Alter recently told the BBJ. Alter has partnered with local developer Bill Struever who has rehabbed many area industrial sites including the Woodberry-Hampden area of Baltimore, where Woodberry Kitchen is now located. Alter opened a similar such space the Dacha Beer Garden on a vacant lot in D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood in 2013.

Tapas Teatro: The beloved tapas spot in Station North is undergoing a renovation. A new bar area will create more space for a communal table, larger parties, and a new look.

EPICUREAN EVENTS

7/25: La Cuchara Farm Dinner with the Maryland Farmers Market Association and Hex Ferments

La Cuchara is hosting a farmer’s market dinner in conjunction with the Maryland Farmers Market Association and Hex Ferments on Sunday, from 5-8 p.m. Dinner will include a map of the Saturday and Sunday Baltimore farmers markets showing where some of the ingredients for the meal are sourced from. Hex Ferments will provide cocktail pairings and a portion of proceeds will support the Maryland Market Money program, which provides matching dollars to low-income families who use their benefit at area farmers markets.

7/25: Col Bol Pop-Up at Grind House Juice Bar

Chef Carleen Goodridge of Le Monade will host a pop up called Col Bol, which means “cold bowl.” The event will take place this Sunday at 11 a.m. at Grind House Juice Bar on Saint Paul’s Street. Carleen is honoring her Liberian heritage with dishes like eggplant stew and cassava leaf and plantain porridge.

7/29: Chez Hugo Collaborates with Sacré Sucré

Chez Hugo Bistro will collaborate with Sacré Sucré pastry studio for a six-course tasting menu with all things sweet and savory. Each kitchen will present three courses. Look for dishes such as a blackberry crisp tuile with buckwheat cream, candied beets, and preserved summer fruit and fromage blanc and corn cheesecake with cornbread crumbs, pepper jam, fermented honey, and glazed fresh corn. The cost of the tasting menu is $50. The event runs from 7-9 p.m.

Happy Birthday to You!

Area restaurants celebrate big numbers.

City Café turns 25 on Sept. 4.

The Helmand turns 30 this fall.

Mt. Washington Tavern kicks off its 40 years in business celebration this November.

On Valentine’s Day in 2016, spouses Dane Thibodeaux and Manuel “Manny” Sanchez set up a table outside their California home and posted a sign that read “French macarons” to see if they’d have any luck selling their homemade treats, the classic French cookie that wowed them on a trip to Paris years ago. Within hours, they were sold out of every flavor—chocolate, vanilla, salted caramel, lemon, and raspberry—and a business idea was born.

Fast-forward to 2017, when the couple, having met in Hampden years ago, moved back to Baltimore. The duo eventually sold their sweets at farmers’ markets, with sights set on opening a brick-and-mortar shop. The answer to their dreams is Sacré Sucré in Fells Point.

It’s the answer to our dreams, as well.

Buyer beware: Standing in front of the display case can be deeply disorienting just as you think you’ve made up your mind and settled on something, you’ll change it again. We can save you some tsuris. Skip lunch (or dinner) and consider one of everything, working from left to right, as we did. There’s a dense and delicious mile-high brownie glazed with chocolate caramel; a fanciful Almost Spring tea cake; a carnival of color with lemon cake and layers of whipped mascarpone cream and raspberry preserves sandwiched between raspberry macarons; a Manolo petit gateau with coffee mousse, hazelnut cream, and hazelnut dacquoise; and a pistachio cream-filled éclair with its enticing green white chocolate and gold dust glaze.

Also on offer is the robin’s egg blue mirror-glazed Sofia Petit, a layered confection of Earl Grey mousse, almond ganache, and almond praline that deserves placement on a pedestal at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

And while everyone and their mère is doing a macaron these days, these morsels—in a panoply of flavors, including coffee, pistachio, rose, and Mission Fig—rival anything you’d find in France. (Clearly, Baltimoreans agree—the duo sells between 1,200 and 1,500 of the confections a week.)

Beyond the pastry case, there’s a lovely assortment of loose-leaf teas and kombucha, as well as bags of housemade marshmallows strewn with salted caramel or dark chocolate. (Buy both.) Like their well-paired ingredients, Thibodeaux and Sanchez go together perfectly. Thibodeaux attended culinary school at Johnson & Wales in Providence, Rhode Island, and is a passionate cook, while Sanchez, who had a career in cybersecurity, has always been interested in baking.

“I cook really well,” says Thibodeaux. “I know my flavors, but I’m not a measurer—I’m not a precise person, so for me it was really hard to do this. With Manny, it’s two grams, not more, not less. And I’m like, ‘Well, it looks like two grams.’” By any measure, the new bakery is one of Baltimore’s best.

Husbands and co-owners Manuel Sanchez and Dane Thibodeaux have each bring their individual talents to Sacré Sucré, the Fells Point sweets shop that specializes in classic French macarons and fanciful desserts that taste as good as they look.

Sanchez, who formerly worked in cybersecurity, works in the kitchen, while Thibodeaux studied culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, works in the front of the retail space, making artisanal cups of loose-leaf tea and hawking the pastries.

We caught up with them on Monday morning, a rare day off from making—and selling—1,200 to 1,500 macarons a week.

How did you come to open up this sweet’s shop?
Manuel Sanchez: Some people think we just woke up one day and decided to do this. We’ve always made stuff at home I started trying to bake bread at home. Dane has always been super hands on about making food from scratch, like pasta and jams. I got started with bread, but it never really took off. It’s very difficult to make at home because of the oven temperature and you need a lot of equipment.

How did you learn to bake?
MS: It’s funny because my mom used to bake cakes, but I was never involved in the kitchen. Still, I find myself doing things that she used to do, like banging the cake pan to get the air bubbles out or adding syrup to cake batter to moisten it.

Dane, how did you get your start?
Dane Thibodeaux: With my cooking background, I cook really well, but I’m not a precise person, so doing this with Manny was really hard for me.

MS: Dane has given me the confidence to work in a kitchen—he had that background. Without him, I think I would have failed. I didn’t know enough to go into this alone.

Why did you start making macarons, specifically?
DT: On our trip to Paris in 2015, we had macarons—we weren’t even seeking them out, we just kept seeing them and had them because we were in Paris. For me, the fig macaron was the start. I wondered how they put fresh fig into a macaron. In America, it’s all butter creams and flavorings. When we came back, we started playing with recipes. After hundreds of times of failing, we finally got one that looked good.

When did you start selling them?
DT: When we lived in California, we were making them and giving them to friends and neighbors and we started making them more and selling them to them. But on Valentine’s Day, we put out a sign and a little table on the corner of our block that said French macarons. We made almost $200.

MS: The idea of opening a storefront was scary, so we started selling them at the farmers’ market. We thought that was a good introduction without a huge investment.

What inspired the name of the business?
DT: I’m from Louisiana and in Cajun the word “sacré” is a polite swear word. It’s a common curse word among older people. My grandparents, who spoke French, said it.

What made you come back to Baltimore after living in California?
MS: Most of our friends were here, and we wanted to move back. We met here, and we knew all the places here.

DT: It was like moving back home.

Do you feel like you’re filling a dessert void in the city?
MS: In Baltimore, I feel like if I want a quality pastry I have to go to a high-end hotel. There are not many options for a high-quality dessert beyond ice cream and doughnuts. In the U.S., dessert is often just an afterthought, but it can be just as great as a dinner entrée.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Manuel Sanchez’s name. Baltimore regrets the error.

COMING SOON

Sacré Sucré: It’s no secret that macarons are having a moment, and soon, locals will be able to sample the sweet confections at this new shop in Fells Point. Slated to open later this month, Sacré Sucré (which translates to “sacred sugar” in French) will offer delicate pastries including fluffy eclairs, hand-decorated bonbons, and an array of colorful macarons. Set in the Fleet Street shop that previously housed Baltimore Cakery, the pastry studio will boast a modern design with neon signs, custom wallpaper, and an open kitchen behind a glass display case. 2001 Fleet St, 443-873-0020

The Sweet Greek Grill: This migrating Greek food stand has become known for serving its Old World staples at fairs and festivals throughout the state. And now, The Sweet Greek Grill is settling in to permanent digs in Fallston. The new eatery will be a destination for authentic gyros, spanakopita, loukoumades, and housemade baklava when it cuts the ribbon in the coming weeks. 2735 Fallston Road, Fallston, 443-567-1628

NEWS

Cosima Launches Sunday Brunch: Earlier this month, chef Donna Crivello started serving Sunday brunch at Cosima in Clipper Mill. Just in time for al fresco dining season (the restaurant boasts a picturesque patio overlooking the Jones Falls), the rustic Italian spot is now open for brunch every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Menu highlights include brioche French toast with apple compote and candied bacon, corn pancakes with whipped lemon mascarpone, roasted pork belly with pickled pears, and a Sicilian salad with arugula, oranges, and fennel. Beverage manager Kristen Starks has also dreamed up a bevy of brunch cocktails to help wash down all of the eats. 3000 Falls Road, 443-708-7352

The Emporiyum Takes a Break: Local foodies have made attending this culinary cloud nine—a gathering of regional purveyors selling everything from doughnuts and dumplings to craft beer and bubble tea—a spring tradition since it launched three years ago. But the Emporiyum is going on hiatus this year while co-founder Sue-Jean Chun is on maternity leave. Chun assures that the festival will be back in 2019, and is currently in the process of scouting new locations. “The food talent in Baltimore is endless and we look forward to producing next spring’s event to be the best yet,” she tells us. “We can’t wait to start putting together an amazing roster with new artisans, new products, and standby favorites, too.” 

Cross Street Market Update: As Federal Hill’s Cross Street Market continues to trek forward with its major revitalization plans, vendors are deciding whether to close, relocate, or stay put during construction. Dooby’s sister-spot Sundays Bakehouse will close in the market after this weekend, but hopes to make a return once renovations wrap up in 2019. Soup purveyor Prescription Chicken and Gertie’s Yummy Yogurt Bowls have temporarily moved to the Mount Vernon Marketplace until construction is complete. Head to the Mt. Vernon food hall to sample signature broths including matzo ball and meatless veggie, as well as colorful yogurt bowls topped with fruit, nuts, and granola. Barbecue hotspot Smoke—along with Nick’s Oyster Bar, The Sweet Shoppe, Pretzel Twist, Nunnally Bros. Choice Meats, and Cheese Galore & More—will all remain open at Cross Street throughout the construction process. 1065 S. Charles St. 

Wild Kombucha Debuts New Flavor: Homegrown beverage startup Wild Kombucha has been hard at work on a new flavor that is launching just in time for the warmer temperatures. On Wednesday, April 18, the brand’s new Tart Cherry Ginger kombucha will land in more than 300 retail stores throughout the region, including local Whole Foods and MOM’s Organic Market locations. The new release—made with a fermented green tea base, organic cherries, and ginger juice—comes at a transformative time for the company, which started as a small operation in 2015 and is now expanding distribution to five states from a 4,000-square-foot brewery in Timonium. 

EPICUREAN EVENTS

4/18: Eating From the Foodshed Roundtable at Bird in Hand
If you’re thinking about joining a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program this season, Bird in Hand is hosting a roundtable discussion to explore the benefits of eating local. Listen in as Tamara Todd of Monkton’s Wild Peace Farm, local health and fitness blogger Jess Schreibstein, and Briana White of Woodberry Kitchen discuss the ins and outs of becoming a CSA member. Guests attending the BYOB event will also be able to sign up for the Wild Peace CSA, which will use Bird in Hand as one of its pickup locations this season. 11 E. 33rd, Free, 6 p.m., 410-814-0373

4/9-15: The Verandah Pop-Up at R. House
Head to R. House this week to chow down on Indian street foods from Hampden hotspot The Verandah. The eatery returns to the rotating pop-up space for the second time at the market,  featuring dishes like chicken biryani, samosa chaat, and a classic murgh makhani (butter chicken) platter. 301 W. 29th St. 

SHUT

In Bloom: Once again, changes are on the horizon at this cozy Federal Hill restaurant. Just last summer, husband-and-wife owners Kevin Perry and Cecilia Benalcazar rebranded the spot from Liv2Eat to In Bloom—a concept launched in conjunction with local chef Cyrus Keefer. Keefer backed out of the project last fall, and now, the owners have announced that they are closing the restaurant. “Like with the other ‘non-bar’ establishments, there was just not enough business,” Benalcazar recently told SouthBmore.com. “We are looking to sell.” Although the In Bloom space is on the market, the owners’ next-door cafe Blooming Deli remains open for business. 1444 Light St.