If the goal is to avoid eating an entire baguette in one sitting, stay away from Chelsea Green. In this quaint micro-neighborhood of southwest London known for its specialty-foods shops, hospitality impresario Robin Birley (of 5 Hertford Street and Oswald’s fame) and his longtime executive pastry chef, Vincent Zanardi, have opened Birley Bakery.
Whether contending with the seven a.m. rush or the after-school-snack crowd, the place is never dull. (And that is not only due to its dazzling array of seeded baguettes, hand-dipped chocolates, and Paris-Brest.) Since its January 6 opening, this boulangerie-pâtisserie on Cale Street has established itself as an epicenter of a rarefied universe. Even those highly maintained Chelsea types who swear by the ketogenic diet (in theory) are lining up for cinnamon croissants glazed with caramelized sugar. Jesus, take the wheel …
