rustique calls themselves a “country pie stand” but they’ve got a lot more going on than just pies. i first heard about this adorable sud-ouest bakery after watching the hilarious day of gluttony: 24 montreal restaurants in 24 hours video, in which it was featured. we popped in on a saturday afternoon and quickly found ourselves involved in a serious pastry situation.
the location itself is pretty tiny and well, rustic! there is plenty of wood paneling, chalk boards, and various beautiful items that embody the country feeling of the space. the glass cases full of baked treasures can easily throw off anyone’s good judgement. just one little treat? how about three? how about twelve? the space is beautifully perfect and completely channels everything that this place is about. they only have a small handful of tables available to sit at, so if you intend to stay you might need to have a bit of luck on your side.
of course rustique’s main focus is on pies and they offer a rotating selection of delicious seasonal flavours. you could buy any one of their full-sized pies and end up very, very pleased with yourself. but the other thing that they have lots of are various mini pies, bars, scones, and cookies. we decided to grab warm beverages and go the route of the tiny treat.
i picked a chai latte, my usual go-to and favourite. i liked this chai because it wasn’t too sweet and it didn’t taste too over processed. it probably could have been slightly stronger for my taste, but it was a happy match for my desserts.
gazing through the glass, we made our selections from all of the little gleaming gems available. there was a lot to choose from! we grabbed a whippet bar, wunderbar bar, pistachio cheesecake crumble, boston cream mini pie, apple mini pie, and bonfire crumble. we sat down and figured that we’d just try a few of them and then bring the rest home. ha! ...we devoured every single one.
i really love that they make tiny pies so that you can have a small taste of pie without having to buy an entire large one. their crust is light and flaky, buttery and delicious. the apple pie filling was exactly what a classic apple pie should be, juicy apples bathed in tons of cinnamon. meanwhile, the mix of chocolate and custard in the boston cream could not possibly be wrong. the crumbles were great as well, albeit a bit more difficult to eat. the graham cracker crusts really did crumble all over the place! i loved the delicate and creamy flavours of the pistachio cheesecake and the bonfire was very interesting, a take on a s’more! hidden underneath the toasted marshmallow was chocolate, of course, and it really did taste like the campfire classic. my favourite though, were the bars. the whippet was similar to those puffy cookies that you can buy at the grocery store, except way better obviously! caramel and marshmallow was enrobed in chocolate and the whole thing was soft and luscious. but my absolute #1 was the wunderbar bar. oh wow. it’s haunting my dreams. this bar is a spin on the wunderbar chocolate bar and all of the same components are present; creamy peanut butter, light crisps and chewy caramel. except that this one is a million times better than the candy bar variety. one bite and i was in heaven! it’s chocolately and peanut buttery, yet somehow light and crispy, and then the caramel is helping to bind everything together... if this had been the only thing that i had tried atrustiqueit would have been worth the visit.
everything was so good and i will surely be craving their baking very soon. (who am i kidding? i already am.) this is the kind of place where you might want to show up earlier rather than later, because the best stuff will probably start to sell out. once our box was empty we weren’t sure what to do... so we went back up and completely filled it again! this time the items actually came home with us...