pistacia vera

oh. my. goodness.. pistacia vera is a phenomenon that every columbus resident should experience. i am no expert blogger or food critic but i can tell you when the food and atmosphere is great. my family and ilovethis place and will continue to go as long as they stay open!

i have eaten pastries all over the world. ilovethem. pistacia vera's are simply incomparable. the chocolate bombe, and any seasonal frangipan, feuilletine or dacquoise - you can't go wrong.  i always look forward to having one of their large cakes when i come back to columbus to spend my birthday with family.

love, love,lovethis place! my niece stacy told about it. great quiche for lunch; pastries for a snack.... and coffee that is wonderful. don't miss it. if their side parking lot is full, they have another across the street.

love, love,lovethis place all the way from it's gorgeous location in german village to the intimate atmosphere to the absolutely delicious food. i came here on a chilly grey march day for lunch and left feeling much cheerier. super friendly staff. nice size dining room. i don't often use the word delightful, but this place was!!!

simply mah-velous. like walking off the street in paris, milan or barcelona for coffee and a snack. it is that good. always. and the staff is one of the best on town.lovethis place!!! and when you take one of their desserts as a hostess gift it is like you made someone's day.

next to real chocolate, dark chocolate ~ my favourite treats are les petits macarons. it was the one thing that brought out the "typical american" behavior in me each time i was in france. i fell inlove& couldn't get enough... probably spent more $$$ on them than anything else ~ luckily i was dating someone in paris & didn't have to worry too much about money :)

because i loved them so much, i learned how to make them very well, thanks to pierre hermé, as well as my strong will & obsession. they are however, very time consuming, so i kept it down to once a year for the holidays.

thanks to the new pistacia vera in the short north, i could get them more often. unfortunately, (or fortunately because of my limited income) they were not quite the same as the much loved parisiennes macarons that i couldn't get enough of, so i wasn't as obsessed as i predicted. even to this day pistacia vera is inconsistent with the making of them, whether it is the texture or the size ~ the shape, however, is always the same & that is a good sign at least.

this past weekend i took a friend from out of town to pv for a treat & it was very disappointing ~ i was shocked: each macaron had a completely diff texture than the other (one not baked long enough), the feuillitine was horrible, the worst & they used to have the best feuillitine i've ever had. the cannelé wasn't great either. hell, i was even shocked with my latte... surprisingly, in the past they've made shockingly good lattes which, as an extremely talented barista, it was the last thing i expected, plus, they use the best coffee in town ~ brioso! the latte was bad for the 1st time. i could tell just by the sound of the frothing, then it curdled or... not sure what happened?

overall it has been a disappointment. i occasionally would go there because i expect to leave the typical midwest bore and escape into the pleasurably tasteful french pâtisserie fantasy, resurfacing good thoughts... but no... it's just another american [a]version from something better that seemed to exist once before in a dream....... an illusion, a façade.

best columbus desserts. ilovepistacia vera. a friend referred me here ages ago and i always think of it, but then remember they close at 7pm. that's the only major set back. otherwise, get there before 7pm. we've sampled probably half of the items there and everything has been fantastic. even the coffee is delicious. service is great, too. overall lovely, if you think of it before it's too late in the day...

oh. em. gee.. to die for.lovethe gluten-free options, and my family raved about the croissant and pistachio-chocolate chip cookies. the g-f berry torte is nearly better than the g-f chocolate torte... my new (expensive) obsession!