The team behind Place des Fêtes and Oxalis opens Laurel Bakery on Columbia Street

The excellent bakehouse serves as both a bread factory for their restaurants and a pastry shop for the neighborhood

Down by the Brooklyn waterfront on Columbia Street, on a block that hasn’t seen a lot of action since the legendary Pok Pok closed back in 2018, a crowd started gathering before 8 a.m. a couple of Saturdays ago. It was opening day for Laurel Bakery. The neighborhood was stoked.

“We expected to be busy, but not lines-down-the-block busy,” chef and co-owner Nico Russell tells Brooklyn Magazine. “We’re very lucky. Very fortunate. The community’s been very welcoming. Everyone’s been really, really cool. This is going to be a really great neighborhood spot.”

On the waterfront (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Laurel Bakery is part of the Redwood Hospitality group, which is owned by Russell and his partners Steve Wong and Piper Kristensen, and includes such acclaimed restaurants as Place des Fêtes in Clinton Hill and Oxalis in Prospect Heights. Redwood closed the Michelin-starred Oxalis last fall and will soon open an all-day cafe in the space. A new iteration of Oxalis is coming to a different location next year.

It’s a busy time for Redwood, and they’re going to need a lot of bread. The Laurel team will also be providing baked goods for all of the group’s restaurants. Which means anyone can now get the highest quality baguettes, brioches, and batards — we’re talking Michelin-starred restaurant-level stuff — as well as a host of pastries both sweet and savory in the Columbia Waterfront District.

Laurel’s head baker is Craig Escalante, a Redwood newcomer. So far he is killing it. Our hungry crew devoured a full tray of his creations late in the afternoon last week, and everything was delightful. Laurel’s pain Suisse, which Russel describes as “like a chocolate croissant, but so much better,” was phenomenal, as was the pistachio croissant.

The juicy canelé de Bordeaux delivered on the promise of the pastry’s crisp, chewy shell and creamy interior. The dense almond Bostock is the coffee cake of your dreams.

From left: Almond Bostock, $5; pain Suisse, $6 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

But if you want to go full dessert mode, the Italian maritozzi, an ultra-luxe cream puff that seems to have exploded, is topped with strawberries from Harry’s Berries. The chocolate chip cookie is also fantastic.

Strawberry maritozzo, $7 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

For something savory, get the potent cantal (one of Russell’s personal favorite cheeses) and ramp “escargot,” so named because of its spiral shape, not because it has actual snails inside (perhaps unfortunately?).

Ramp and cantal escargot, $8 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

There are sandwiches as well, starting at around 11 a.m. each day, including an excellent ham and cheese baguette slathered with Laurel’s decadent house-made butter.

Jambon beurre, $13 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

There’s a whole coffee menu here, of course, starring Sey Coffee beans, a lighter style that, as Redwood’s beverage director Kristensen puts it, “suits a more casual strolling coffee.” And unless you grab one of the few tables on the sidewalk out on Kane Street, strolling is exactly what you’ll be doing. Laurel can crank out some amazing goodies, but there’s no seating inside.

Laurel Bakery is located at 115 Columbia Street, at the corner of Kane Street, and is currently open on Wednesday through Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. or until they’re sold out (which has happened almost every day so far).