La Patisserie Chouquette: A Must-Visit Boutique Bakery in St. Louis
Hey girl!
While I have always been a big fan of drinking tea both at home and in cafes, I recently experienced the very posh concept of Afternoon Tea, and boy will it be hard for me to ever go back from there. Ladies, if you’ve ever put on a pretend tea party as a little girl, think of that but ten times better. This year for New Years Eve, some of the women in my family decided to attend Afternoon Tea at La Patisserie Chouquette — and for those of you who didn’t take French class like my mother and her terrible pronunciation, it’s pronounced “pah-teece-serh-ree shoe-ket.” This is a charming boutique bakery specializing in French pastries with New Orleans-styled desserts and cakes, and it was truly très délicieux et magnifique.
And don’t get me wrong — Josephine’s Tea Room & Gift Shops is still a total “tea and pastry vibe” and a favorite of mine, but let’s just say there’s a new favorite to add to the list!
Read the blog, “Josephine’s Tea Room & Gift Shops, A Restaurant Review.”
Table of Contents
| The Pastry Shop |
Meet the Chef Custom Cakes & Desserts Macarons — Plus a Subscription Option |
| The Afternoon Tea Experience |
| Assortment of Teas Special Holiday Menu |
| Plan a Visit |
| Shop Hours & Reservations |
A New Orlean’s Twist on Pastries
While La Patisserie Chouquette has made quite a big name for itself around the area, the shop is a rather intimate space in the Tower Grove neighborhood of St. Louis, with outdoor seating available as weather permits. On a typical day, patrons can come in and order everything from macarons, sweet and savory breakfast treats, desserts, cakes, and teas or coffee.
Meet the Chef
Chef and owner Simone Faure pulls from her New Orleans roots to add some major flavor to the pastries at La Patisserie Chouquette — cucumber sandwiches, who? Simone also has quite the reputation, originally working for the Ritz Carlton hotels and baking for several notable celebrities.
But even with her status, Simone was incredibly warm and genuine! Not only did she greet us at our table, but consistently came around to each table throughout our tea experience to walk us through various pastries we were trying and freshen our tea.
Plus, she was so down-to-earth — which she credited to our New Orleans background — with none of the snobby attitude you expect to come across during high tea.
Cake for Days, Plus Dessert as an Art form
La Patisserie Chouquette specializes in baking wedding cakes as well as custom cakes, which are literally some of the most breathtaking and gorgeous designs I’ve ever seen. No seriously, like I would hate to buy one because they’re too pretty to eat! Although I kind of just want to buy a cake to post it on my Instagram if I’m being real, LOL.
While most of the cakes and lavish desserts were put away during our visit for afternoon tea, I looked them up online afterwards and immediately was like, holy effing sh** these actually look so amazing. My absolute favorite cakes are the ones with the macarons on top — ahhh, SO gorg!!
Get ready to fall totally in love…
Dying for a sample? Order the cake tasting box with four slices for only $25.
So Many Macarons It needed a Subscription
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of macarons. I don’t really get them as a dessert and don’t find them that enjoyable, although honestly I haven’t tried many of them at all and I’ve heard there’s a lot of flavors. I also understand they’re a staple of French culture, so I try not to judge. While each of us did get a macaron in our little gift bags from afternoon tea, I was so full by the end that I actually never even got to try mine (I took it home and it ended up going bad in the car! Tragic…)
But if you’re a fan of these adorable little buggers — which BTW I think they’re just so pretty and I do enjoy just looking at them! — La Patisserie Chouquette has all the macarons you could want in just about every color. I would personally go back and even buy them in different flavors just to have an excuse to try one again.
You can shop for macarons in boxes of six or if you’re an even bigger macaron fiend, you can join the macaron subscription club — who knew these existed? You’ll receive a box of six each month, including any specialty flavors, with a handmade note from the chef!
The AFternoon Tea Experience
Right, so I’ve bragged a lot on this little pastry shop and haven’t even gotten to MY dining experience! Digression…there’s something I’ve never let happen before. Well to get back on track, afternoon tea at La Patisserie Chouquette was so lovely.
The Tea on the Tea
Of course our afternoon tea came with an assortment of teas to accompany our meal. My absolute ONLY critique about this place and our experience — figured I’d start with this and get it out of the way — was that our first pot of tea (a Parisian black tea) came out rather cold. I love my tea piping hot, so I started off a little put-off by this. I won’t lie, my mind immediately started to wonder how good this place would actually be if they couldn’t even get the tea right!
But the experience immediately got significantly better. We were actually brought a second pot of holiday tea by Chef Simone herself that was the perfect temperature and much more bright in flavor. And just like at my nana’s house (who prides herself on serving afternoon tea every day on her fine china collection), there were adorable little sugar cubes we could plop right into our tea cups!
The food, though.
I can safely argue this afternoon tea would have been seriously incredible even WITHOUT the tea. That’s how dang delicious the pastries were! Chef Simone featured a special Christmas Tea Menu, called “A Réveillon-themed experience.”
Pictured more clearly below, we were instructed to start on the bottom, third tier and work our way up, which transitioned from more savory treats to sweets.
Here’s what was on the menu:
| Fried Grit Cakes | 3rd Tier | Surprising good seeing as I don’t tend to like grits |
| Petite Crawfish Pies | 3rd Tier | SO flavorful and possibly my favorite |
| Shrimp and Avocado Salad Rémoulade | 3rd Tier | Wasn’t my fave (I had also eaten an entire Panera salad that morning, so maybe I was just not feeling salad by then?) |
| Yorkshire Pudding | 3rd Tier | JUST AMAZING and so fluffy |
| Maque Choux and Andouille Bread Pudding | 3rd Tier | A savory, moist delight |
| Café Brulot Mousse | 2nd Tier | AH, I can’t even with how yummy and creamy these were |
| Butter Pecan Scones | 2nd Tier | OMG, literally got me so full and so yum with the special butter |
| Christmas Rum Balls | 1st Tier | Didn’t make it to try these, was so full |
| Sugar Plums | 1st Tier | Also couldn’t stomach after eating everything |
| Tiana’s Beignet’s With Cafe Au Last Creme | Separate Plate | Like a little donut from heaven |
| Holiday Macarons | Gift Bag | Never got to try |
Visit Your Neighborhood Pastry shop
Ready to have your cake and eat it too? Head to 1626 Tower Grove, St. Louis from Tuesday through Friday 9am-2pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. You can also place an order online and pickup during business hours. To experience Afternoon Tea yourself, make a reservation online and check out their upcoming menu for February and March 2023.
And don’t forget to bring your appetite! Don’t let these dainty desserts fool you; they’re filled with flavor and can be a bit dense too, but trust me, it’s totally worth all the calories. Be sure to follow La Patisserie Chouquette on Instagram to keep up with what they’re doing.
What’s your favorite pastry or drink from this beloved gem? Let me know in the comments below.
Sincerely,
