For me, the most exciting restaurant opening of 2019 was Pierre Hermé‘s new location in New York. Pierre Hermé‘s name is well-known to anyone with an interest in macarons or French pastries, so I was surprised how little press coverage there was when they opened earlier this year. Previously, the only place in the U.S. to get Pierre Hermé’s macarons was the Delta Sky Club at JFK, but now that location has closed and they instead have a more accessible outpost in L’Avenue on the ninth floor of Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship store. The pastry counter is open daily from 11 a.m.–11 p.m.
To begin with, here are the individually sized pastries, cakes, chocolates and macarons they had on display. These photos are from May 2019, so the pastry offerings have changed by now; see my other Pierre Hermé posts for some of their more current seasonal pastries.
Update (March 2020): To-go pastries are now $9 each.
Their macarons are top notch, definitely a step above Ladurée and anything else available in the city. These are flown in directly from France. They only have a few (around 8) flavors now, but I was told that they plan to add more by September. I’ve had them before and loved them, but I was here for the pastries.
Their pastries are made in house under the direction of executive pastry chef Stephanie Oliveira, who was previously the head pastry chef at Patisserie Chanson. I actually was able to talk with her a little bit and she told me that they will have 6 pastries available at a time. Three of them (Ispahan, Tarte Infiniment Vanille, and Costes crackers cheesecake) are permanent, and the other three will rotate; on my visit, they were the Plaisir Sucré, Choux Satine, and Tarte Infiniment Chocolat. I purchased four of them, and we took them across the street to the Rockefeller Center to enjoy in the sun.
Ispahan
The Ispahan ($7.50) is Pierre Hermé’s most well-known creation. It consists of rose petal cream, whole raspberries, and diced lychees encased in two rose-flavored macarons and topped with a rose petal. The official website description of “More than a cake, this creation is sheer happiness. Bliss from the first bite.” is pretty spot on. The flavors and textures here work together perfectly to create a delicate, delightful dessert that lives up to its reputation.
Grubstreet recently posted some making-of shots of the Ispahan at L’Avenue on their Instagram highlights. There you can see some of what goes into making the macaron shells and watch them assemble some!
New Yorkers might be more familiar with Ladurée’s Ispahan (Pierre Hermé actually invented it while he worked at Ladurée!). Pierre Hermé’s version is far superior in my opinion: elegant and harmonious, an upgrade from the sad bumpy shells at Ladurée. Here all the components work together perfectly. It’s really a classic and a must-try for any pastry fan.
Choux Satine (seasonal)
The Choux Satine ($7) was originally released as part of the Satine collection, which featured the combination of cream cheese, orange, and passion fruit. It consists of a choux with cream cheese cream, passion fruit cream, orange marmalade, and bits of shortbread pastry. It’s not very sweet, and it actually has a potentially polarizing slight savory bent. Personally I would have preferred more sweetness and more prominent fruity flavors, since there was a lot of the cream cheese cream, which was not sweet. The design was interesting—as shown in the below picture it involves a choux within a choux in the bottom half.
Tarte Infiniment Chocolate (seasonal)
The next pastry is the very decadent Tarte Infiniment Chocolat ($8.50). It’s composed of chantilly cream and a dark chocolate crisp on a pâte sablée crust base, topped with thick layer of luxurious ganache. It’s very rich, very sophisticated, and very enjoyable. Oliveira told me that she was considering replacing this with another chocolate tart soon, so I’d definitely recommend trying it while it’s still around.
Tarte Infiniment Vanille
Last but certainly not least is the Tarte Infiniment Vanille ($8), which was my favorite of the pastries I tried here. This unassuming looking tart consists of pâte sablée crust, a very rich white chocolate ganache with vanilla on top, and inside a vanilla-flavored mascarpone cream encasing a vanilla-moistened biscuit. It’s legitimately heavenly. The contrast between the crisp pâte sablée crust, dense ganache, and lighter biscuit inside makes every bite light and interesting. This tart combines vanilla from Mexico, Tahiti, and Madagascar to realize “Pierre Hermé’s concept of the ideal vanilla” and you can really taste the quality of the vanilla permeating through the entire pastry. This is an absolute must-get, and I’m already looking forward to ordering it again on my next visit.
If you’re interested, here’s a video (in French) showing Pierre Hermé himself making a full size Tarte Infiniment Vanille.
Now that Pierre Hermé is here, I see little reason to visit any of the other pâtisseries in New York. This is just the first of what will be for me hopefully be many more visits to come.
In subsequent visits I’ve also tried other pastries here:
- Tarte lemon smash (tennis-themed lemon tart) ,
- Montebello (pistachio and strawberry),
- Plaisir sucré (hazelnut and milk chocolate),
- Tarte infiniment chocolat au lait (milk chocolate tart),
- Ultime (dark chocolate and vanilla),
- Costes cheesecake,
- Tarte au potiron (pumpkin tart),
- Tarte infiniment pistache (pistachio tart),
- Tarte infiniment caramel (caramel tart),
- Winter 2019–2020 seasonal macarons,
- Victoria (coconut, pineapple, and cilantro), and
- Plaisir intense (dark chocolate).
For all of my Pierre Hermé posts, see this tag: https://willtravelforsnacks.wordpress.com/tag/pierre-herme/
Pierre Hermé, located in L’Avenue at Saks
8 E 50th Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10022
212-940-4099
https://www.pierreherme.com/
Hours:
Monday–Sunday: 11 a.m.–11 p.m.
Will Travel for Snacks 