LAURENT DUCHÊNE Vincennes pâtisserie et café boutique

The case comes first at this Vincennes address: individual pastries, macarons, chocolates and travel cakes from Laurent Duchêne, a Meilleur Ouvrier de France in pâtisserie, with tables and a terrace arranged around them. Opened in October 2019, the café-boutique extends the house beyond a retail counter into salon de thé service without moving the pastry out of the middle.

A MOF pâtissier’s case

Pâtisserie leads and everything else is built around it. The Duchêne repertoire runs from individual pastries to larger sharing cakes, macarons, chocolates, tablettes, épicerie jars, travel cakes and traiteur pieces, so the display changes shape depending on whether the purchase is for now, for a table or for a gift. Seasonal fruit sets the rhythm: strawberry season is marked, and raspberry appears in a composition on a crisp sablé base. Bread and viennoiserie belong to the wider Duchêne selection and back up the morning. The craft credentials are unusual for a neighbourhood café-boutique: the MOF title is central to the house identity, and Duchêne belongs to Relais Desserts, the association of leading pâtissiers and chocolatiers.

Salon de thé, not just a counter

The Vincennes format matters because it is not only a place to collect a box. Pâtisserie, salon de thé, boulangerie and café functions share one room, so the pace can move from a breakfast viennoiserie to a plat du jour and then to tea with pastry. Sunday brunch gives the address a more structured occasion. Drinks are treated as part of the craft rather than a courtesy: tea comes from Kodama, a Parisian tea house, and is infused with the same care the pastry gets, while coffee is handled as its own discipline. The terrace changes the feel again, giving the polished boutique counter a relaxed outdoor half.

Take the seasonal fruit pastry first

Start with whatever the season is carrying: the raspberry pastry on its crisp sablé base is the clearest read on how Duchêne handles fruit, acidity and texture in a small format. Macarons are the easiest second order and the simplest way to compare this house against others. Chocolates and tablettes suit a purchase that has to travel, and travel cakes hold better than anything else in the case if the pastry is going home rather than to the table outside. For a longer sit, pair a Kodama tea with an individual pâtisserie rather than ordering coffee out of habit, since the tea list is the part of the drinks side the house has thought hardest about. Sharing cakes are the order for a table, and worth deciding on before the case does the deciding.