New York City bakery selling $50 French croissant cereal

At 8:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, a line snaked down a once sleepy block of Montague Street in Brooklyn. A sea of Birkenstocks-clad stroller moms and panting dogs waited eagerly. A few people even wore Breton-stripe shirts and chattered in French, a nod to what they’re after: a $50 box of miniature croissant cereal.

Last year, chowhounds salivated when husband-and-wife duo Gautier and Ashley Coiffard started selling mini hand-rolled croissants out of their Cobble Hill apartment. This past May, they opened brick-and-mortar bakery L’Appartement 4F in Brooklyn Heights, and the demand for the tiny croissants has taken on a life of its own. Hopefuls line up a half-hour before the bakery opens in hopes of nabbing one of just four or five boxes of Petite Croissant Céréale available each day.

“They require so much time and work,” baker Jessica Schrecker told The Post of why the mini marvels are sold in such limited quantities. “We roll them out, shape them into this teeny, tiny triangle and roll it like a regular croissant.”

After being shaped, the diminutive croissants, which weigh about a gram apiece, are dehydrated and rolled in cinnamon-sugar, then baked fresh. Each box packs around 250 mini croissants, each around half an inch in length. They’re not only adorable, they also manage to remain remarkably crunchy in milk and have a shelf life of two to three weeks.

Fans say the cereal’s steep price tag is warranted.

“It’s $50, but it’s worth it for at least one time. It’s so cute,” Pema Shakabpa, 49, who works in sales near the bakery, said.

Others disagree. “Who can afford this? Marie Antoinette?” a teen scoffed, spitting out pastry flakes after trying the pricey breakfast treat.

Still, the TikTok crowd is hungry for it. The hashtag for #croissantcereal has more than 13 million views on the social media platform, and the bakery itself has amassed more than 37,000 followers.

The Coiffards’ French bakery began as a COVID-19 side hustle in 2020. Gautier, an engineer, and Ashley, a nurse, began posting a menu online to raise money for their wedding. When they saw how lucrative their bread business was, they set up a Kickstarter to fund the opening of their own bakery, raking in more than $60,000.

While the tiny croissants trend online, locals say not to sleep on the full-size pastries, such as a superlative almond croissant stuffed with raspberry ganache.

“I’d rather have a fresh croissant every day, as opposed to buying cereal and having it at home,” Anna Fisher, 38, an art dealer who lives in the neighborhood and regularly frequents L’Appartement 4F said.