Earlier this year, John Lee, the owner of Cafe W, asked his employees to make a new kind of croissant — an “onioissant,” as he would later call it — just as bakers had done in Singapore, South Korea, and Australia. Easier said than done. To be an onioissant — or cronigiri, as some bakers call them — it had to have three curved points, like onigiri, and the flaky texture of French pastry.
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Luke Fortney is a journalist based in New York City. He most recently worked as a reporter for Eater, where covered restaurants and food trends for nearly five years.
It took them over eight weeks to get right. Of course, there were issues with the shape. But the bigger problem was the dough: “We spent lots of time to determine the precise number of layers and the optimal thickness of the dough,” says Sara Kim, Cafe W’s manager. It had to be pliable (to shape into a triangle) but also quite sturdy (to hold fillings that might be used in actual onigiri, like mayonnaise and roe).
In May, they cracked the code and added the onioissant to the menu. It has a crisp, buttery crust and an ornamental piece of seaweed wrapped around the bottom. The pastry inside is soft and denser than your average croissant (35-29 154th Street, off Northern Boulevard).
Cafe W sells about 1,600 of the $6.50 pastries each week, and each batch takes over 11 hours to make. The bakery rolls out its dough in the evening. In the morning, it’s shaped into triangles using a mold. After it’s filled with one of two flavors — chive bacon cream cheese or mayonnaise with roe — the pastries are set out for sale in the morning. More are baked throughout the day.
On weekends, the croissants sell out in a few hours. If you miss them, it’s a perfect excuse to try another one of Cafe W’s experiments: the crone, a croissant ice cream cone used for soft serve. It was added to the menu last summer.
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