EXTRA EXTRA! Atelier Ariana opens tomorrow in Carroll Gardens
A beautiful shop focused on French desserts and viennoiseries
Atelier Ariana, a new Parisian-inspired pastry shop specializing in hand-rolled croissants and all manner of French desserts (look out L’Appartement 4F!) opens tomorrow in Carroll Gardens. The brick-and-mortar space (478 Smith Street, corner of 9th Street) grew from Ariana’s popular pastry pop ups held at her old apartment on Dennett Place.
Ariana, who is 33, grew up in Detroit in a tight-knit family where food and mealtimes were cherished. “Being in the kitchen and baking and cooking and making family meals together was very important growing up,” she told me when we chatted on the phone. “I have three sisters and we always had family dinner at a specific time. We grew up that way, coming together around the table every day.”
While in college at University of Michigan, she caught the baking bug and started working for pastry chefs. After graduation she went straight to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in London to study pastry. From there, she moved to Paris where she lived and baked for six years, working everywhere from chocolatiers, to the Hotel Grand Amour, and finally as head chef at the Palais de Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art. “It was not always easy, but it was the most formative time for me, personally and professionally,” she said.
She returned to Brooklyn in the winter of 2020 to try to build something of her own, and when the pandemic hit, started doing pop-ups to test the waters, which is how I discovered her last year.
At her beautiful corner shop, she is serving Parlor Coffee and Bellocq Teas and focusing on pastries baked with classic French technique during the week, with the addition of hand-made lovingly laminated viennoiseries on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Her list includes plain, chocolate, almond, and chocolate almond croissants (plus seasonal flavors), pan au chocolat, and pain au raisin in addition to her signature mini croissant loafs.
During the week you can expect a wide variety of desserts like her version of a “cupcake” topped with whipped ganache with homemade toppings like brittle, cookie crumbles, as well as tarts, pies, and a beautiful selection of entremets — tiny little multi-layered and multi-textured desserts.
There will also be ginger cookies, chocolate drop cookies (whole wheat butter cookie with a chocolate ganache center), fig drop cookie butter cookies, financier, and her plum butter cakes. As we get deeper into fall, additional items will be added that reflect the seasons and holidays. Hope to see you there!
Atelier Ariana will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 8am-4pm.
478 Smith Street, corner of 9th, 718-614-3582.