What should we know about Parnell Street Bakery?
We’ve mourned a lot of closures in recent times, but few as deeply as primo Dublin sandwich shop 147 Deli. Shoes to fill don’t come bigger, but if anyone’s up to the task it’s Thibauld Peigne, who pivoted from best-in-the-biz wholesale baking with Tartine, to a retail outlet of his own with Russell Street Bakery in 2023. Parnell Street Bakery is the second opening in what we'd love to think will be a Northside bakery massive.
What should we have?
An annual medical checkup in the diary - there is so much buttery brilliance here that your arteries will need a deep clean after you’ve guzzled your way through the menu. We made off with all our greedy hands could carry across three separate visits and still wanted more.
As at Russell Street, the pastries are perfection, high-art exemplars of Peigne’s classical boulangerie craft. This is baking that’s showstopping but never showy, laminated layers and golden crusts galore.
The pistachio New York roll and pain au chocolat’s paper-thin pastry layers submit to the bite with a crackle to make ASMR audiences swoon. Both lean heavily on the rich simplicity and flavour of top-tier butter, though the former’s hidden bounties of nutty cream won out over the latter’s modest chocolate baton.
The cinnamon bun’s pillowy, spiced sugar-dusted dough and the apple crumble danish’s tart crunch offer every bit as much to savour – you can’t go wrong with the sweet pastries here.
We fared less well for savoury - generous mounds of ham were welcome in a croissant, but a longer spell in the oven was needed to make the most of the cheese, and while we’re not complaining about the sandwiches, the fillings are three-star foils to the five-star bread.
Stick to focaccia, and marvel at its near-transparent texture - if there’s a better one about town we’ve yet to find it. Both the potato and garlic, and goat’s cheese and tomato subscribed to the less-is-more school of thought - luscious flavour pops poked into superb sourdough.
As we’ve recently reported, Dublin’s high-end patisserie game has stepped up a gear – trust the French to rise to the challenge. Peigne’s confections are a marvel, the feather-in-the-cap finale that puts Parnell Street Bakery among the city’s best. The éclair is a paragon of patisserie technique, structurally sound but oh-so soft, a delight of duelling redcurrant and rhubarb flavours. Only the fraisier we found a little lacking - the picture-perfect strawberry sponge looks the part, but the too-thick cream couldn’t match it on taste.
The salted caramel tart however met the raised expectations of a glorious glossy sheen with rich and complex chocolate, and while a hazelnut-heavy Paris-Brest is a pastry we've never not said gimme-that-right-now to, this one is a sensation. Look out Library Street, there’s a new challenger in town.
Why should I go?
In a lovely little madeleine washed down with an Imbibe coffee, you'll find the essence of Parnell Street Bakery. For all the frills and fancy flourishes, it’s this simple, classic craft, tirelessly perfected, that defines the place.
Parnell Street Bakery
147 Parnel Street, Dublin 1
