Best Bites: La Tour Café’s Pastries and Light Bites Prove You Can Be Bougie on a Budget
(Sponsored) Butter mochi kouign amanns, mouth-numbing spicy chicken sandwiches and pizzas loaded with garlic confit are just a few of the gourmet cheap eats available for takeout.
When brothers Trung and Brandon Lam opened their first La Tour Café in 2011, it was an experiment to see how their father Thanh Lam’s La Tour Bakehouse bread and pastries would do in an actual café setting. Ten years and five locations later, they’re still pumping out some of the best baked goods in the industry with a menu of sandwiches, pizzas and salads to showcase them. From the iconic rainbow of French macarons at the counter to the Wagyu Melts on shokupan and Spinach, Mushroom and Garlic pizzas, each item is crafted to highlight their expertise in French pastry with a touch of local flair.
Even before pandemic restrictions tightened their grip on dine-in restaurants, La Tour was a force in the takeout scene with online ordering, sustainable packaging and fair prices everyone could stomach. And this year they were named a Hale ‘Aina finalist for the Best Takeout in the affordable category.
On this episode, chef Chris Gee shares some of the Best Bites, both classic and new, that make La Tour Café a destination if you want to eat bougie on a budget.
