New Bakery Offers Prospect Heights A Taste Of France

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Rows of pastries, freshly baked bread and gorgeous confections greet customers when they step inside Prospect Park's newest bakery.

Mille-Feuille isn't just an authentic Pâtisserie française along Vanderbilt Avenue — it's an instant trip to France, said the shop's general manager Stephanie Liot.

"Bite into a croissant and in a blink of an eye you're in Paris," she said.

Liot knows what she's talking about. Like the shop's owners, she's a French transplant in New York City.

The Big Apple has a lot to offer food-wise, but Mille-Feuille's founder and executive chef Olivier Dessyn discovered during a vacation a decade ago that the city didn't have bread and pastries like in France, Liot said.

Good bread and pastries are important, she said. And why?

"We're French," Liot said, by way of explanation.

Dessyn saw a pressing pastry problem in New York and resolved to help, Liot said. He previously trained as a pastry chef at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, so he quit his job software engineer, moved to New York and eventually opened the first Mille-Feuille shop in Greenwich Village.

Mille-Feuille is a name layered with meanings. It's the name of a traditional French pastry with many layers of flaky crust wrapping around vanilla cream. It also alludes to the Bobst library at NYU, near where the first Mille-Feuille opened in Manhattan. Finally, the English word "mill" refers to flour, Liot said.

The bakery expanded to locations on the Upper West Side, the Hotel Belleclaire and a kitchen in the Pfizer Building in Bed-Stuy.

They also started eyeing Brooklyn for a new shop, before they picked Prospect Heights. And the reason, like many things French, came down to bread.

"Bread was something we knew was a need for the neighborhood," Liot said.

Turns out they were right about the need — Liot said the Prospect Heights store's bread sales since its Feb. 8 opening have topped other Mille-Feuille locations.

But it's not just delicious bread on the shelves. There are ham and cheese sandwiches with bechamel — a necessity, Liot said — quiche Lorraine, macarons and many, many more sweet and savory French goodies.

Then there's the scents.

"Smells good," a young girl said as soon she stepped into the shop on Wednesday.

Liot smiled when she heard that spontaneous review. She hopes customers feel like the shop is a warm extension of their own homes. Customers and staff alike are treated like family, she said.

The care goes down to the details, and not just in the exquisitely crafted dishes. Liot said the store strives to be sensitive to the environment — they avoid plastics whenever possible.

She said they also offer as many vegetarian dishes as possible and soon will roll out vegan options.

Mille-Feuille in Prospect Heights is located at 622 Vanderbilt Ave., near Prospect Place. More information about Mille-Feuille can be found on its website.

The business also sells whole to places like Park Slope Food Coop and offers a host of popular baking classes.