The place smells awful—like no odour I’ve ever known, and nothing like a bakery—but still, it’s crowded with tourists. I really wonder how people can stand the odour. Doesn’t it give you a haut-le-coeur? There’s no way a French bakery would stink like that. In France, the good smell of the bread and of the patisseries must reach you while you’re walking in the street. Intrigued, you have a look through the vitrine and you dribble in front of all those good stuff. Then you check your pockets to see how much money you can spend. You enter the place and a warm and heady flavour comes to tickle your nose. And you spend 10 minutes in the bakery store, hesitating between the chouquettes, the macarons, the eclairs and the viennoiseries.

Not that many choices here, in Le Panier. Actually, the place seems to be a touristic spot. But why should tourists go to a French bakery while they’re visiting Seattle? Weird.

I bought a baguette and a croissant in order to taste them. I was happy to discover that they didn’t smell like the bakery store. They even smell like French croissants and baguettes. The bread is crusty enough and looks good. Same for the croissant. And in my mouth, they’re not the best I’ve ever eaten but they are good.

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I was surprised by the price, $2.25 for a baguette. The bread has not been imported, so why is it so expensive to mix some baking powder with flour, salt, and water? In France, the average price for a baguette is 0,80 euro (about $1).

I would give this place a C+.

Good points:
• The location
• The taste
• The ambient

Bad points:
• The price
• The smell
• Lack of choice

120 replies on “J’ai Testé Pour Vous: Le Panier”

  3. When I was in France I was told that the baguettes were subsidized by the government. That could account for the fact that they’re more expensive here. Yes, try Le Fournil.

  6. I <3 the French Intern. At the same time though, why on earth are you going to a Le Panier. They are a chain. Most chains are terrible. I echo the Le Fournil recommendation, but also just try any of the local places. Three Sisters in pike place comes to mind. Also the bread makers at the farmer’s markets are killer (though insane expensive). Go to the Ballard Farmer’s market this Sunday and look at the goods on offer there.

  8. Julien, you forget that your government mandates the price of a baguette – market price would be higher. I actually think that the bread at le Panier sucks, but their pastries are solid. Never did find a good (or even passable) baguette in Seattle.

  9. Try Bakery Nouveau In west Seattle. Best bread in the city. Also because our bread, from small bakeries, is not subsidized it is very expensive by comparison.

  14. If by baking powder you mean yeast, ok. Otherwise you have no idea of how to make a baguette, and should stick to eating them in silence.
    There are reasons a place might not smell good that they have no control over-the neighbor’s plumbing problems for example.
    But I don’t even live in Seattle so I don’t have to worry about the poor quality of the baguette available there.

  15. Kinda weird a French guy has to hear from foreigners how his country subsidizes bread. Julien, you didn’t know that? Really?

    And yah, you’re a snob. (Not that that is a bad thing around food.)

  18. OK, we get it, your ‘meme’ is to do the French thing, like Charles’ ‘meme’ is to do the black thing. Only the white guys at The Stranger get to avoid living the stereotype.

    I think Frenchie’s role here is to gin up all the queers into dreaming of living in the Marais with this frog.

  21. You’re obviously being directed to the absolute crappiest places – maybe after you’ve been here a while, the hazing will stop, and you’ll be allowed to go to the decent joints.

  22. Whatever. I LOVE the french intern. I’m having a hard time believing that he’s really from France, but I don’t CARE! But do not stop! Keep it up.

  23. I want daily updates from the frenchman on how not-like-france seattle is, it’s starting to make my morning.

    That said, my mouth was bored through most of france. Hitting the Italian border was ridiculously exciting.

    Though if you find a good Brie En Brioche, please let me know

  28. The only thing that intrigues me about this post is wondering what exactly the off-putting smell was, since you never describe it.

    Is Le Panier that bakery place at Pike Market? I’m not sure if I’ve ever been inside it. I’d be amused to read your review of the little crêperie downstairs in the Market* and also of Rover’s in Madison Park…

    *my kids like the Nutela crêpes at that place – last time we were there a HUGE woman rode in on a Rascal scooter, needing to move tables aside to even fit inside the crêperie as her scooter made beep beep backing up noises. Bon appetit!

  30. Congratulations on winning The Stranger’s annual “Who can write more obnoxious posts than Charles?” contest. You have a bright future as The Stranger’s new foreign exchange hipster.

  31. Le Fournil is the place to go. The baker’s French and an certified artisan baker. My roommate’s French and prefers them over anyone else in this city for bread

  33. Julien – if you really want to meet the baker go find him at 3-4 a.m in the morning on Tuesday mixing ingredients and kneading dough. I’ve been past there at that hour on my way home and have seen him there.

  34. Either this intern is crazy, or there was something off the day he went to Le Panier. It’s never smelled like anything besides a bakery when I lived in Seattle.

  35. If this were one of your *own* hipsters doing this, I think you’d find it funny. Because someone from a foreign country dares to make fun of food in the US, all the hackles go up. (And bakery chain French bread IS crap, it’s like white cotton candy.) Just take a step back and think: The US (Canada too) leads the world in production and consumption of junk food, imagine what our groceries look like to someone from elsewhere. If I could be so bold (and trollish) this reaction is what sets Americans apart from everyone else (even Canadians), the idea that you can criticize each other, but God help the poor fool from another country who suggests you aren’t #1 in every department.

  36. Amazing. Two posts and I’ve already decided that this asswipe has nothing to say that’s worth reading. I think that’s a new record.

  37. @29 – If I was the owner of that shop and a woman with a rascal scooter needed to go through my place disturbing people who were sitting down and enjoying their coffee and pastry, I wouldn’t let her go through. I’d serve her by the door and let her sit near the entrance. We Americans are too damn nice sometimes and make everyone feel entitled to ruin everyone else’s day.

  40. @ 36, I believe someone provided a link very early in the comments on Julien’s post about grocery stores, showing how much junk the French consume. They really can’t get on any high horse about that anymore, especially with an obesity rate that’s steadily climbing too.

    People are always going to “get their hackles up” when someone is so critical in such a snobbish fashion, regardless of where the snob comes from. Just look at the comments Dan has gotten on this morning’s “No Big Loss” post.

  41. This reads like what I would expect if Mudede made a baby with Publicola, and that baby also decided to write stuff. Not sure how I feel about that.

  44. To be fair, Le Panier (which started in Portland but isn’t a “chain”) does hold itself out to be “French.” Grand Central was the first Seattle bakery to use artisan methods. In addition to Le Fournil and Cafe Besalu and the one in West Seattle and St. Honoré in Ballard and so on, don’t forget the French-owned, French-staffed, 100% organic Boulangerie Nantaise on 4th Ave in Belltown.

    Juilien, I’m reminded of the Hasidic rabbi who takes the train from Noo Yawk to the Deep South, where he’s the object of stares and derision. “Vot’s da matter?” he asks, “Haven’t you ever seen a Yankee before?”

    Ne vous-en foutez pas de tous ces cornichons.

  45. These posts are mildly amusing but I guess I don’t see the point of going 5000 miles to an entirely different part of the world and then whining that the French baked goods aren’t as good as in France. No shit, Sherlock. Try something new. Jesus.

  49. Julien is real and he was indeed at Slog Happy last night. He did take off a little early, but I have a photograph of him, Cienna and Grant at 9MiUB.

    He definitely speaks French, he’s friendly and charming, and reading this post after having met him and heard some of his observations delivered with a smile is less hackle-raising than having read yesterday’s post before having met him. Not that yesterday’s post bothered me much, but this one I thought was quite even-handed. Maybe it’s because I’m imagining it delivered with a smile, the way he talked about university prices in France and in the U.S.

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