Bouley Bakery
120 W. Broadway (at Duane Street)
(212) 964-8362
Want to eat at Bouley Bakery without spending a lot of bread? It’s possible.
The foyer of the TriBeCa eatery leads to two doorways. One opens onto David Bouley’s dining room, an elegant space with New French cuisine and prices to match. The other lands you in the bakery retail cafe, where the terrific sandwiches, soups, salads -and killer bread, of course -cost much less dough.
The small, large-windowed corner room has several wood tables with Shaker chairs, a simple setting for a backdrop of beautiful loaves in all shapes and a glass case filled with voluptuous pastries.
Omelets ($4.95) and French toast made with baguette or apple raisin bread ($4.50) are available in the morning, as well as croissants and brioche.
Cold sandwiches for hot days include intensely smoky trout layered with thin slices of tomato, lettuce and a judicious slather of dilly cucumber yogurt dressing ($7.75), and silky roast chicken topped with avocado, tomato and fresh mayo ($6.75). Both come on chewy-crusted mountain bread.
A generous salad of tender sliced shrimp and broccoli moist with sherry vinaigrette ($7.95) is also summery light. Squares of pizza ($1.75) come topped with herbed tomatoes or potatoes. And tart lemonade completes the seasonal theme.
Naturally, you’ll want to save room for sweets, such as a softball-size crisp of a sugary meringue cookie ($1.75) or cakey tart of deep-red raspberries on a cloud of sweetened farmer’s cheese ($5).
Just don’t arrive too late. They close at 6.