Cocotte — Restaurant in Cornelius

Wow.. I struggle to find words for how beautiful this bakery is.

I am a retired pastry chef who specialized in bread and laminated dough with over a decade of experience baking. THIS is the most exquisite, expertly crafted, technically perfect pastry I have ever seen. This level of craftsmanship you can usually only get if you travel to France. Luckily they've brought it right to our doorstep.

This is a special kind of food. One that requires time, love, precision, and care. The beauty of baking is that it is a science and a craft. In this establishment you can experience perfection; the absolute highest level of baking and pastry.

The atmosphere is clean and inviting. It is way bigger than I expected it to be. There are plenty of tables to sit at and an outside patio with giant picnic tables. The staff is friendly, attentive, and when they're not busy they're cleaning and restocking for the next rush. I love to see the teamwork and coordination. It is so refreshing to not see people just sitting on their phones when it isn't busy.

Here you will find fresh artisan breads, perfectly laminated croissants, pastries, sandwiches, home made sides, and of course our own locally roasted Defined Coffee. What more could we ask for as a community? Bakeries are a dying trade and I beg my fellow neighbors to come and support this business. You can't and won't find this kind of shop anywhere else in charlotte. I've looked.

I wish you guys all the success possible....

My friend and I stopped in here last weekend as we both appreciate some good French pastries. We tried the apple turnover croissant, pain suisse, pan au chocolat, and a strawberry fruit tart. Everything was visually stunning as you can see from the photos.

The croissants were both soft and crispy with a bunch of delicious fillings. Interestingly enough, the apple turnover croissant was filled with an applesauce mixture so you really get a lot of apple on this one! The pan au chocolat and the pain suisse also had some good fillings. As for the strawberry tart, the bottom had a nice shortbread cookie base, a lightly sweetened custard mixture, and super fresh strawberries. My friend was also tasting almond extract in this one, but I didn't get any taste of it. I'd say the apple turnover croissant is a winner in terms of creativity and taste.

The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating with friendly staff! It is a little noisy outside being right next to a busy road but they also have some cute seating indoors. There wasn't anything that knocked our socks off but all of the pastries were executed well and there is a good selection of pastries and breads to...

For my first visit, I picked up a few pastries to take home and a tea latte. The number of choices was a bit overwhelming, to be honest!

I did have to wait a good bit for my drink, extra because of an error with the drink, actually twice, but I didn't correct the second error because I needed to get home.

But, the time I waited gave me a chance to browse the for sale items, outside of the bakery items, and the variety of seating, including a children's area with some toys and books. At least one booth had a plug if you need to work for a bit and there is Wi-Fi.

I was excited to see a place with a variety of tea and tea lattes; however, the seasonal latte I ordered was first given to me as an iced coffee. I don't drink coffee, so I asked to correct the drink. I was given an iced tea drink that was OK BUT it was not a latte. No milk!

The best pastries I tried were the apple bow tie and blueberry brioche bun. The chocolate cream croissant didn't have much filling and the lemon meringue pie slice had kind of a sticky texture?

Some of the items are a reasonable price but others are a little on the high side, so my review is a...