Reunion Bakery / Sourdough Bread / Coffee — Restaurant in Denver

Yall, my wife and I had an extra day and Denver and treveled to Reunion bakery on a trusted recommendation from a close friend. Never have I ever been more proud of the people I call friends because...

This is without a doubt from coast to coast, from Mexico to Italy and back again the best bakery I've ever been to. No I'm serious. My wife and I love to travel and we love a good pastry. The special yesterday was the toast special, this whipped scrambled egg atop a deliciously thick and crispy sourdough toast with pepperoni's (trust them, they are artists) on top. It was an extravagant and filling savory delight that readied my palate for something of the sweeter variety. Before I did that, i had to have a bite of my wife's Ham and Gruyere Croissant. Delicious high quality ham right off the hock, crisped edge cheese escaping the confines of the bread, and a perfectly textured croissant. Truly, I didn't know a ham and cheese could taste this good.

Next, the Mango danish truly had me speechless. The cooked croissant style bread was flakey buttery and lightly glazed all over, with half having some type of sugar speckling it. Its beauty was only eclipsed by its flavor. The sour cream had a lovely flavor without being overly sweet or rich, crested by the mango sitting atop of it caused my mind to struggle to focus. My wife tried to speak to me while I was eating it and unfortunately the malfunction of my brain caused by this perfect treat overrode my normal sensibilities. At this point we should have been done, but I couldn't resist the temptation. I ordered the Almond Croissant.

As per the tradition of this establishment, this was no ordinary Almond Croissant. They took one of their Belgian Chocolate Croissants, and cut it in half with a delicious almond filling, topped with a borderline obnoxious amount of sliced Almonds and sprinkled with powdered sugar. The filling was the perfect amount of sweetness, and flavor was incredible when you'd catch a bite with the chocolate. I'll resist the temptation to further bloviate on how perfect this croissant bread was.

Lastly, there was a beautiful woman from New Zealand who served my wife and I and she beamed with pride in the establishment from our first interaction. She was quite amused watching me have a spiritual undoing at each bite. She wasn't the owner, we got to meet him too! But If I were him, I'd make sure he shows her how much he appreciates her beaming joy that she gets to give people what for me, after several visits, the definitive culinary experience in Denver. She clearly has a lot of love the that little bakery, and perhaps the pastry chef too ;-)

Any of these delightful pastries could stand proudly on the world's stage. If I could give it 16 stars out of 5 I would. I will be thinking about these pastries for a long time, and planning random trips with my family to come back to Denver so I can share this slice of...

Congrats to Ismael the owner who got nominated best pastry chef / baker in 2023 James beard award. This is a national recognition and only 20 pastry chefs get nominated each year.

Wednesday 1400 close to their closing time of 1500

Reunion the bakery is located next to The Source Hotel (market #2)

Parking garage is free for the 1st hour or $8 if you go over

1880’s the original building (market #1) was used for blacksmithing making Valyrian Steel and what not until it fell vacant during the 2000s then the Zeppelin Development group purchased it in 2012 and turned it into Denver’s first food hall marketplace.

We use to visit our friends next door at Block32 apartments and frequented the Source often. Tenants have come and gone, and after 10 years of revitalizing they managed to rename 5points to hip capital RiNo. Alright enough gibberish onto the review about the bread.

On Google they are listed as Reunion bread / sourdough bread. Sourdough is made by fermenting dough with lactic acid. Without going too deep into the rabbit hole of bread chemistry, the long fermentation leads to a lower glycemic index and reduces the amount of gluten.

Since I was here on a Wednesday they didn’t have any sourdough and they only had 6 pastry items available. The friendly staff said the Pastel de Nata (egg tarts) were sold out but come back on weekend. So we chose the next next two options: Golfeados and the Churro croissant.

Pastel de Nata (is from Belém a district of Lisbon) nata translates to Cream so it’s pastry of cream was voted to be one of Portugal’s 7 wonders of gastronomy.

Golfeados (Venezuelan sticky bun) looks like a cinnamon roll with cotija cheese sprinkles on top. The piloncillo syrup (sugar cane juice) was a bit too sweet for me but still good.

Churro croissant was my favorite. I even went back and got two more to go. The croissant is coated in sugar and filled with Dulce de leche (sweet of the milk) on the inside.

With European and Venezuelan influences, it truly is a reunion of bread cultures. I’ve been eating so much croissants lately, anybody know the phone number to CCA?

Churros...

Holy mother of dough, this place is worth the wait. Came on a Saturday morning not really expecting the line, but this did give me time to consider my options and send the SO to get coffee from across the bridge in the other part of The Marketplace (although they do sell espresso drinks here as well). I suppose that's what happens when you're nominated for a James Beard.

The universal fear of places like this is that you'll anticipate getting your hands all week on a warm, fresh, loaf or specialty croissant but they'll run out before your turn, so people tend to arrive early. Parking is free for 30 minutes in the covered garage. Fortunately, there are also dining tables and chairs around for those who don't like to be bipedal for too long. Even more fortunately, sometimes Ismael and his team will bake something yummy and bring it out to those waiting in line just because they like baking good bread.

The only "menu" of sorts is a customizable letter board on the wall next to the register, which provides no descriptions of any pastries. So IYKYK, if you don't know, it's time to ask your neighbors in line or hold up the line while you probe one of the (extremely kind and friendly) employees taking orders. When you actually get within spitting range of the register, the display case is more helpful, and provides more accurate info on daily specials. Alternatively, stalk their Instagram account. The day we went, there were blueberry danishes, passionfruit tarts, glazed blueberry croissants, and other items that ran out before we even got there.

The natas, little Portugese egg tarts, are a must try. Deceptively small but packed with gooey goodness and a flaky crust. The passionfruit tart was my next favorite thing, with the combo of silky pastry cream, tart flavor, and buttery crust. Danish? Perfection. Croissant? Stuff of dreams. The crookie was the only thing I might have passed on, a little too rich for me and hardened when I ate my leftovers later in the day.

So excited that Ismael is such a young, hungry, carb connoisseur who constantly innovates with his offerings so I have more reasons...