Back to my usual business: dessert! I went to these shops to drop off my CV, though by then most places had already filled their positions. Walking over to Kubo from the metro, the neighborhood turned out to be very hippie, thick with the smell of weed yet full of interesting little vintage shops. The pastry shop itself is tiny inside, and even arriving at 4pm there was still a lot to choose from. I left with a lemon tart and some basil-flavored thing I’ve since forgotten the name of.
After that, I met a friend outside BHV in the Marais. We stopped by Maison Aleph, where I dropped another CV in the mood of desperate job-hunting.
The shop is opened by the Syrian chef Myriam Sabet, who masterly blended the traditions of Middle Eastern cuisine and french pastry. Their signature dessert - the 1001 feuilles (french for layer) – is this tiny little bite of puff pastry, a reinvention of the classic millefeuille. It is made out of phyllo dough into the form of kataifi, comes in plenty flavors to choose just like ice cream. We grabbed a few, and sat down on the chairs right outside their sapphire-colored door. Facing the busy street of Marais, we secretively (but also fully exposed to public) opened the box of Kubo as well.
Photo from Maison Aleph’s website
I have to say, though, Kubo is pretty mediocre. Every tart is generously portioned, but half of that portion is sablé (the tart dough). The first bite still has you savoring the rich butter, and by the third bite it’s cloying enough to make you want to throw up. Maison Aleph, by comparison, knows exactly how heavy their pastries are, so they keep them small.
What made me want to apply to Kubo was the kitchen photos on their instagram, an almost entirely female kitchen, and smiles you basically never see in other shops. From a staff’s perspective, a good kitchen environment still matters more than whether the product tastes good. Going back to their page to find photos for this post, I found out they’re closing in September. Makes sense though since the whole thing was so unremarkable that I forgot to even take pictures… Perhaps taste still matters for the sake of work security.
📍Kubo Patisserie
Location: 47 Rue de la République, 76000 Rouen, France
Seems like they have opened a shop in Rouen after the Paris shop closed!
📍Maison Aleph
Location: 20 Rue de la Verrerie, 75004 Paris