(Breakfast) If you’re passionate about food and haven’t been on a digital detox for the last 24 months, you probably didn’t find your way to 115 Montague Street by chance, but for the delightful fantasy of spooning dozens of hand-rolled miniature croissants from a cereal bowl. The storefront with floor-to-ceiling windows and a chandelier is home to none other than French Boulangerie L’Appartement 4F, creator of the Petite Croissant Céréale, which set the internet abuzz.

The story behind the popular cereal, which consists of adorable, flaky mini croissants with a light cinnamon flavor, can be told in two different ways. The first is a French fairytale set in New York. It all began when Frenchman Gautier Coiffard and aspiring school nurse Ashley Breest fell in love. Longing for the French Boulangerie from his hometown of Grenoble, Gautier started making small batches of slow-fermented sourdough bread and pastries from the couple’s own Cobble Hill flat in 2019—no prizes for guessing their apartment’s number. One can only imagine what an irresistible aroma of freshly baked baguette and pain au chocolat must have greeted guests at their door back then. While the self-taught baker focused on mastering the perfect croissant recipe, Ashley realized that her fellow New Yorkers were missing authentic French baked goods. They sold an early batch of Gautier’s creations to Ashley’s co-workers at a bank in Long Island, but it was during the pandemic that Coiffard’s passion turned into a serious side hustle. To raise money for their wedding in France, the couple posted their first menu for delivery and pick-up on social media in June 2020. The great demand that followed prompted them to launch a successful Kickstarter to fund the opening of their own bakery outside of their home. The campaign’s most popular reward for backers was—you guessed it—their handmade Petite Croissant Céréale.

The other story is one about an original artisan product that has gone viral. On Instagram, Ashley Coiffard explains that at first, she had to beg her partner to make a diminutive version of his croissants, a laborious and time-consuming undertaking. Fast forward a couple of months and the mini croissant cereal sparked awe and outrage on TikTok because of its price, the original amount of the Kickstarter reward. “Mini croissant cereal sells for $50 a box in Brooklyn—but is the Marie Antoinette style breakfast worth it?” read a headline in the New York Post. However, customers embraced the luxurious breakfast treat and the media presence caused demand to take on a life of its own. L’Appartement 4F’s crowdfunding raised more than 60,000 dollars, which, paired with loans, enabled the Coiffards to open a brick-and-mortar bakery in Brooklyn Heights in May 2022. Since then, people have been lining up for half an hour before the bakery opens to get their hands on one of the coveted boxes in minimalist white and black, which are now also available in smaller units at half price. On most days, they sell out within 10 minutes of opening at 8 am.

The limited quantities of the mini croissant cereal are not so much a marketing ploy as a consequence of the complex production process. Just like L’Apparement 4F’s regular croissants the mini version is made of laminated dough with French butter, which is rolled very thinly and cut into tiny triangles. Each piece is then rolled by hand, baked after resting, dehydrated for crunchiness and coated with cinnamon syrup. With every mini croissant taking about a minute to make, the daily production volume amounts to less than ten cereal boxes a day. Without an online shop or pre-order system, the only way to get a hold of the viral cereal is to get in line first thing in the morning.

Over the last decade, New York has been a breeding ground of many a croissant hype—from Dominique Ansel’s Cronut to Lafayette Bakery’s circular cream-filled Croissant Suprêmes. Via social media, international trends like the Cruffin from Australia, France’s Le Crookie or dipped flat croissants from South Korea have spilled over and have been enthusiastically adopted by local bakers. So is the croissant cereal just another pastry craze? What sets L’Appartement 4F’s Petite Croissant Céréale apart from the aforementioned spins is that it stays true to the shape, flaky layered texture and just slightly sweet taste of the original. It is above all a play on size—and a charming one at that. Ultimately, even the French croissant itself is an adaptation of another popular breakfast pastry: the Wiener Kipferl from Austria.

At the beginning of 2024, L’Appartement 4F announced that they would be opening a second location in the West Village as well as baking their croissants, regular and cereal-sized, on-site in Manhattan. The new bakery will be located at 119 West 10th Street and will most likely be marked by the same feature as the original—the long line out the door.