Behind the bench
Why a croissant takes three days
Twenty-seven layers, a butter block, and two nights in a cold room. Here is the whole schedule, hour by hour, and why we will not shorten it.
Ovens on at 4:40 am, doors at 6:30
Burlington mornings, baked before you wake up
A café and bakery in Burlington. Eggs from Richmond, coffee roasted in the South End, croissants that were started three days ago.
- 4.8 from 1,204 reviews
- Open today 6:30 am - 3:00 pm
- Three cafés in Chittenden County
Five menus, one kitchen
Which morning are you having?
Breakfast and lunch run every day. Brunch is a weekend thing, the bakery case empties as it empties, and the espresso bar never stops.
| Menu | When it runs | Starts at | Typical wait | Best for | Where you sit | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | Weekdays 6:30 am - 11:00 am | $6 | 8 to 12 minutes | Before work, solo with a book, quick counter pickup | Counter seating and 14 tables | See it |
| Weekend brunchMost ordered | Saturday & Sunday 8:00 am - 2:00 pm | $14 | 15 to 25 minutes at peak | Groups of four to six, slow mornings, out-of-town family | Full dining room, patio in summer | See it |
| Lunch | Daily from 11:00 am until close | $11 | 10 to 15 minutes | Working lunch, takeout, a bowl at the window counter | Counter, tables, and takeaway shelf | See it |
| Bakery counter | Every day from open until sold out | $3.50 | Grab and go | Taking something home, a cake for Friday, bread on the way out | Counter service | See it |
| Coffee & drinks | All open hours | $3.25 | 3 to 6 minutes | A cup on the way through, a long table with a laptop | Counter and window bar | See it |
Breakfast
$6- When it runs
- Weekdays 6:30 am - 11:00 am
- Starts at
- $6
- Typical wait
- 8 to 12 minutes
- Best for
- Before work, solo with a book, quick counter pickup
- Most ordered
Weekend brunch
$14- When it runs
- Saturday & Sunday 8:00 am - 2:00 pm
- Starts at
- $14
- Typical wait
- 15 to 25 minutes at peak
- Best for
- Groups of four to six, slow mornings, out-of-town family
Lunch
$11- When it runs
- Daily from 11:00 am until close
- Starts at
- $11
- Typical wait
- 10 to 15 minutes
- Best for
- Working lunch, takeout, a bowl at the window counter
Bakery counter
$3.50- When it runs
- Every day from open until sold out
- Starts at
- $3.50
- Typical wait
- Grab and go
- Best for
- Taking something home, a cake for Friday, bread on the way out
Coffee & drinks
$3.25- When it runs
- All open hours
- Starts at
- $3.25
- Typical wait
- 3 to 6 minutes
- Best for
- A cup on the way through, a long table with a laptop
One day, from dark to closed
Nothing here is dramatic. It is just the order things happen in, every day, which is the only reason the case is full when you walk in.
4:40 am
Ovens on, first trays in
Two bakers, one deck oven. Croissants proofed overnight go in first, then the morning buns in their tins, then the loaves.
6:10 am
The van leaves for Winooski
The Winooski case is packed and driven over so it is full before that location opens at 6:30.
6:30 am
Church Street opens
Griddle at temperature, case full, first pot of drip. There are usually four people already waiting.
9:30 am
Bread comes out
Country sourdough, seeded rye and the milk bread pullman. They cool for an hour before anyone slices them.
10:45 am
Soups on the board
Tomato and white cheddar plus whatever the second soup is that day, written up and posted online.
1:30 pm
Second cookie bake
Maple oat and double chocolate rye go back in so the afternoon case is not picked over.
3:00 pm
Close, and the food shelf run
Whatever is left goes to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, and the bakers start tomorrow's détrempe.
What is coming out of the oven today
The bake list changes with the day of the week. Saturday is the biggest, Sunday is the smallest because brunch takes the oven, and Thursday is the only day there is focaccia.
Monday
Nut-free bench on the first Monday of the month
- 1Butter croissant
- 2Morning bun
- 3Maple oat cookie
- 4Country sourdough
- 5Olive oil cake
Baked from 4:40 am. When a tray is gone it is gone, and there is a second bake at 10:15 on weekends.
Tuesday
Fresh beans land from the roaster
- 1Butter croissant
- 2Cardamom knot
- 3Lemon bar
- 4Country sourdough
- 5Seeded rye
Baked from 4:40 am. When a tray is gone it is gone, and there is a second bake at 10:15 on weekends.
Wednesday
Lamination day, the bench is covered in butter
- 1Butter croissant
- 2Almond croissant
- 3Double chocolate rye
- 4Milk bread pullman
- 5Carrot cake
Baked from 4:40 am. When a tray is gone it is gone, and there is a second bake at 10:15 on weekends.
Thursday
Focaccia Thursday, only day it appears
- 1Butter croissant
- 2Morning bun
- 3Ham & gruyère croissant
- 4Focaccia
- 5Country sourdough
Baked from 4:40 am. When a tray is gone it is gone, and there is a second bake at 10:15 on weekends.
Friday
Cider doughnuts from September to December
- 1Butter croissant
- 2Cardamom knot
- 3Cider doughnuts
- 4Country sourdough
- 5Chocolate malt cake
Baked from 4:40 am. When a tray is gone it is gone, and there is a second bake at 10:15 on weekends.
Saturday
Biggest bake of the week, second tray at 10:15
- 1Butter croissant
- 2Morning bun
- 3Almond croissant
- 4Cardamom knot
- 5Country sourdough
- 6Seeded rye
Baked from 4:40 am. When a tray is gone it is gone, and there is a second bake at 10:15 on weekends.
Sunday
Brunch takes the oven, so the case is smaller
- 1Butter croissant
- 2Morning bun
- 3Cinnamon pull-apart
- 4Country sourdough
Baked from 4:40 am. When a tray is gone it is gone, and there is a second bake at 10:15 on weekends.
Two things we would put our name on
Everything on the menu gets attention. These two get an unreasonable amount of it.
A coffee program with opinions
We buy from Brio Coffeeworks, a hundred yards from our Pine Street café. Beans arrive on Tuesday, rest a day, and never get used more than eighteen days off roast.
- 1House blend dialled in three times a day, at open, at ten and after lunch
- 2Oat, almond and whole milk all cost exactly the same as each other
- 3A rotating single origin on the second grinder for pour over
Weekend brunch, and the pancakes
Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 2 pm at Church Street only. Six plates appear that you will not see Monday through Friday, including the lemon ricotta pancakes.
- 1Text-ahead waitlist, so you can wait on a marketplace bench instead of the doorway
- 2Bottomless drip coffee for five dollars with any brunch plate
- 3Parties of eight or more can book a table a day in advance
Look around the bakery42 photographs from inside all three cafésA kitchen you can actually see into
The pass at Church Street is open to the room on purpose. If you want to watch a croissant get rolled, stand near the corner of the counter at about a quarter past six.
- 1The benchA twelve foot marble top, two bakers and about four hundred croissants rolled before sunrise.
- 2The deck ovenThree decks, steam injection, and a thermometer somebody wrote on in pencil in 2014.
- 3The roomFifty-eight seats, north light at Pine Street, and the patio from late May to the first frost.
The corkboard by the door
Things happening in the room
A café is a room people use. This is what is pinned up right now, and everything on it is free unless it says otherwise.
Bread & Butter book club
Twenty people, one book, a pot of drip and the long table. Currently reading Vermont writers. Sign up on the corkboard.
Saturday sourdough clinic
Rosalind walks through starter maintenance and shaping for eight people at a time. Free, bring a jar and leave with a piece of ours.
South End Art Hop pit stop
We open until 8 pm all three Art Hop nights with cold brew, cookies and a hundred extra chairs in the mill lot.
Winter coat rack
A rack by the door. Leave a coat you are not wearing, take one if you need it. No questions, no sign-up sheet.
Hiring open house
Come in, meet Claire, see the bench. No résumé required, we mostly want to know if you like mornings.
Food shelf drop
Whatever did not sell goes to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. Volunteers welcome for the 3 pm run on Fridays.
Drag it. Dough at six, bread at half eight
Two photographs of the same country sourdough, two and a half hours apart. Pull the handle across to see what an eighteen hour ferment actually does.
8:40 am6:02 am- 16:02 am. Détrempe from Monday, butter block locked in, three folds done.
- 28:40 am. Eighteen hours of cold proof, twenty minutes at 400°F with steam.
- 3The crust crackles as it cools. If it is silent, the bake was short.
What regulars actually say
4.8
1,204 reviews, sample review average across three locations
The lemon ricotta pancakes are worth the Sunday wait. We put our name in, walked the marketplace for twenty minutes, and the text came right on time.
Marisol FerranteOld North End · Weekend brunchI work from the Pine Street communal table twice a week. Good light, outlets that work, and nobody makes you feel guilty about a second cortado.
Devon AchterbergSouth End · Coffee & drinksThe cardamom knot is the best thing in Chittenden County and I will argue about it. Get there before nine on a Saturday.
Priya RaghunathanWinooski · Bakery counterWe ordered the meeting box for a 8:15 am board meeting. It arrived at 7:50, set up, coffee already hot. Three people asked who catered it.
Tomas BelliveauBurlington · CateringThe maple hash has been exactly the same for six years, which is the highest compliment I can give a breakfast plate. Loses a star only because parking downtown is what it is.
Nell OkoroNew North End · BreakfastOrdered an olive oil and citrus cake for my mother's seventieth. They did a tasting box first, then delivered it on a stand. She cried, in the good way.
Gabriel StastnyEssex Junction · Custom cakesTurkey, apple and cheddar on their sourdough. I have eaten it probably ninety times. The bread is the whole thing.
Hanne LindqvistBurlington · LunchSix stools at the window over the falls. I get there at 7:05 to claim one. The espresso is dialled better than anywhere I have been in Vermont.
Andre ToussaintWinooski · Coffee & drinks
Three cafés, three different mornings
All three share a bakery bench. What changes is the room, the hours and how long you want to stay.
The Church Street patio, open late May through October Church Street
114 Church Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Today 6:30 am - 3:00 pm
The original café and the only kitchen that runs weekend brunch. Bakery case, full menu, patio from late May.
The communal table at Pine Street, twelve feet of it Pine Street
340 Pine Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Today 7:00 am - 3:00 pm
The quiet one. Bakery, espresso, breakfast and lunch in a converted mill bay with a twelve-foot communal table.
The window bar at Winooski, looking at the falls Winooski
27 East Allen Street, Winooski, VT 05404
Today 6:30 am - 2:00 pm
The newest and smallest. Fast espresso, the full bakery case and a window bar that looks straight at the falls.
Notes from the bench
Before you come in
The questions we answer most at the counter, in writing, so you do not have to ask.
Only for parties of eight or more at Church Street, with at least a day of notice. Everyone else walks in or uses the text-ahead waitlist on weekends.
Sunday between 9:45 and 11:15 is the peak, and it runs about thirty minutes. Saturday is slightly shorter. Weekdays rarely go past ten minutes.
Gluten-free sandwich bread is available for two dollars, baked off site in a dedicated facility. Our kitchen and bakery bench are not gluten free, so we cannot promise no cross contact.
Croissants usually go by 10:30 on a Saturday. There is a second smaller bake at 10:15 and a cookie bake at 1:30.
Choose a location, build the order, pick a time. Your bag goes on the pickup shelf inside the front door with your name on it, so you skip the espresso queue.
Forty-eight hours for the morning meeting box, three days for the sandwich and soup lunch, five days for the brunch spread and two weeks for a celebration cake table.
Coffee is on. Come and get it
Order ahead for pickup at Church Street, Pine Street or Winooski, or just walk in and look at the case first. That is what most people do.
Sample pricing. Pickup is ready in 8 to 12 minutes at all three cafés.