Ovenly NYC: The Best Baked Goods in NYC?
We've just tasted some of the best baked goods in NYC at Books of Wonder Bookstore, and speaking of amazing baked goods, consider the insanely delicious creations coming out of the kitchens at Ovenly. Ovenly NYC has been supplying area taverns (with bar snacks) and NYC coffee shops (with pastries) for about a year and a half, and now, with the opening last week of their first stand-alone retail bakery and cafe, puts owners Erin Patinkin and Agatha Kulaga as immediate contenders for best bakers in town. Seriously: these are destination cookies (and muffins… and bars… and pop tarts) they're selling at Ovenly, in a pretty little shop that handily enough also serves the best iced coffee around, Stumptown's Cold Brew stubbies.
Ovenly Cookies: The Best Chocolate Chip You'll Ever Eat?
Everything we've ever had from Ovenly has been excellent, and most of it mixes salty (and/or other spices) with sweet in extraordinary fashion. This is not an easy balance to get right–and because it's become something of trend among NYC dessert mongers, we've had way more than our share of unsuccessful pairings–but Erin and Agatha nail it every time. Take the Ovenly cookies, for example: the Salted Chocolate Chip is crazy buttery (somehow! because it's actually vegan!), perfectly chewy, and the chocolate's no joke. They say it's the best chocolate chip you'll ever eat, and they might be right. The Peanut Butter cookie is equally transcendent, with a dense texture and denser flavor that's off the charts. And even better than both of these may be the small wallop of a Pistachio cookie, which was like the best Pignoli we've ever had, but, you know, made from pistachios instead of pine nuts.
And it's all this good at Ovenly! The dense square of Shortbread with Chocolate, Black Caraway, and Smoked Salt launches upon a precarious flavor-balancing act and lands it with aplomb. The Black Chocolate Stout cupcake with Salted Caramel Icing? Same thing. And the Jam Stand (of Hester Street Fair renown) Jelly Donut Muffin? This one's almost too easy. And many of Ovenly NYC's best goodies use nut flours (which is much more common in the Eastern European traditions that Erin Patinkin and Agatha Kulaga favor), and, thus, are gluten free. We made a special trip to check out Ovenly's new space which, given its location at the end of Greenpoint Avenue in Brooklyn, is, we know, not the most convenient plan for some of you. But the good news is this: in addition to its many current outlets, Ovenly will now also supply approximately 80% of all the baked goods at all of New York City's Joe the Art of Coffee sites, so we can get our Ovenly fix on the Upper East Side, Midtown, Upper West Side, Chelsea, Union Square, and the West Village.
Ovenly NYC Details
The new Ovenly Cafe is located on Greenpoint Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, between West Street and the East River. Note: Transmitter Park, which is set to open soon, right on the water, is a half a block away. And the East River Ferry stops only a couple of blocks away, at India Street. For more details, a look at the Ovenly menu, and a complete list of locations around the city which sell Ovenly's goodies, please see the Ovenly website, here.
Posted in Downtown, NYC Dining | Tagged Agatha Kulaga • Baked goods NYC • Coffee shops in NYC • Coffee shops NYC • Erin Patinkin • NYC coffee shops • Ovenly • Ovenly cookies • Ovenly NYC
