This past year a new French bakery / creperie / gelato / coffee spot opened up near the corner of Scottsdale and Shea called
Paris Rendez-Vous. It surprised me that a place serving this sort of menu would appear in such close geographic proximity to
JL Patisserie, literally a strong 3-iron's shot distance to the northeast near the Harkins Theater Shea 14.
I only discovered it by accident on a trip to Ace Hardware, and it is located in one of the outbuildings that front the western side of Scottsdale Road south of Shea, right beside a Subway franchise, outside the Total Wine & More at 10320 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85253.
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Inside is a small but cheerful set of bakery and gelato cases, and as you enter you are greeted with the aroma of good quality coffee and hints of butter.
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So a week or so ago, my wife and I decided to do a comparo between the two for breakfast on Saturday. We chose the Pain au Chocolat as our test case, ordering one from each location, bisecting each, and then both of us eating a half.
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We sat outside JL Patisserie, which has some nice winter morning outdoor seating in the morning, and cleansed our palates with the JL Patisserie coffee as we made our assessment.
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Our evaluation of the JL Patisserie pain is that it is better layered, which slightly more crispy pockets of butter built up within the croissant, such as you would expect from Essence. The Paris Rendez-Vous pain is softer and more homogenous, more in line with an expensive grocery store bakery.
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Furthermore, the chocolat in the JL Patisserie is of higher quality, and the serving contained two batons of the chocolat, whereas the Paris Rendez-Vous chocolat comprised only a single baton of average stuff. So for both of us, the JL Patisserie is the better choice for Pain au Chocolat.
However, the
other items we took home from Paris Rendez-Vous were quite toothsome, and I like gelato more than the average bear, so we will have to make some additional comparative inquiries.
The
online menu is very limited and appears to be associated with a Phoenix location, but the choices available in the store itself are surprisingly diverse, if limited in quantity. For instance, this past week I picked up a Ganache Excellence, which is aptly named, and I purchased the single unit available. I have also picked up an Espresso on more than one occasion, and it is quite good coffee served in a tiny to-go cup in a time shorter than anywhere else in the neighborhood, as I have never been in the location with any other customer. Hopefully they find success in this location, as they proprietor is a lovely, charming lady.
Perhaps the next steps would be to do a comparo with the crepes and those of
Cafe Paris...
