Amélie's French Bakery & Café Review
Of course, our trip wouldn’t have been complete if we didn’t stop at the one place I’ve only mentioned twenty times. We decided to stray from their original location located in the trendy neighborhood of NODA purely out of convenience and opted to visit their newer Pineville location. We figured if they donned the name Amelie’s it should be just as good right? Wrong. More on this later. Walking in, the cafe gave you the same vibes as all the other locations with the décor spewing a Parisian aura and the French pastries filling the air with delightful aromas. A great place to come if you’ve just binged a season of Emily in Paris and want to get a glimpse of what it’s like. This, however, is where the similarities end.
Before going any further, I’d like to first say that I would never want to ruin a company’s reputation or get anyone in trouble so for those reasons I will be leaving any names out and preface any comment I make by saying that they could easily have had an off day being that it was New Year day. With that out of the way, I was a bit let down when I went to order my typical oat milk flat white as the barista was not aware of what the drink was. I tried to give them a quick run-down of what the drink entailed and how to make it but to make their lives easier I quickly readjusted my order and pivoted to a cappuccino, no big deal. We also ordered four macaroons; one vanilla, two hazelnuts, and one chocolate moose. The drink bar where they prepared the coffee drinks was awkwardly placed crossed the room on its own so it didn’t inspire the confidence to walk over and ask the barista if maybe they knew how to make a flat white. Again, no big deal. We simply paid for our items and took a look around the cafe as it had plenty of art and products to keep us busy while we waited.
Sadly, again, no latte art for anyone in our group (starting to become a trend) but everything for the most part came as expected. To my enjoyment, my drink was quite delightful and my vanilla macaroon was exquisite, although, I can’t say the same for our hazelnut macaroons. They were a bit on the larger side and didn’t have the same delicacy that my vanilla macaroon had with its crispy outer layer and a chewy inner layer that combined with the perfect amount of sponginess.
Bon Appétit!
You can’t go into a French bakery and not try a macaroon. That would just be criminal.
All-in-all, it wasn’t my best experience with Amelie’s but I would be remised to believe that people aren’t entitled to an off day. The coffee did its intended purpose and I was able to enjoy a nice breakfast with friends on New Year's day so for that I am grateful. Thankfully, I can always come back and give it another chance or even just bypass it altogether and visit the original location. But for now, I’m off to Tampa. See you next time.
