Dominique Ansel to launch Cronut-free bistro and bakery

Split over two floors, Dominique Ansel Treehouse will house a takeaway bakery boutique on the ground level, with the bistro café upstairs.

Unlike the pastry chef’s dedicated Belgravia-based bakery, which opened in 2016, the Covent Garden site will not serve Ansel's signature croissant-doughnut hybrid.

Instead, the bakery will feature a selection of 'desserts, pastries, tarts, and classic French viennoiserie'.

The bistro, meanwhile, will serve a selection of small and large plates, each showcasing individual pastry-driven techniques.

Dishes set to feature on the menu include wild mushroom and confit chicken vol-au-vent; roasted venison pithivier; and a tomato soup en croûte.

“When we were conceptualising the idea for Dominique Ansel Treehouse, I thought about how, in a traditional restaurant setting, the pastry department typically works on all the different doughs on the menu, even from a savoury perspective,” says Ansel, discussing his inspiration for the concept.

“I’m excited to have created a new menu that celebrates these pastry foundations and French techniques, in a casual bistro café with simple fresh ingredients that stay true to the classics.”

Ansel worked as executive pastry chef at Daniel Boulud’s three Michelin-starred restaurant Daniel in New York for six years, before opening his first bakery in the city in 2011.

His Cronut creation, made by frying laminated dough in grape seed oil before it is filled and covered with sugar and a glaze, gained a cult following in New York and was named one of the Best Inventions of the Year by TIME magazine in 2013.

Ansel's bakery empire has now grown to three New York sites, two in Los Angeles, and one each in London and Hong Kong.