Cuckoo for Cronuts (Part 2): insane lineups, black-market shenanigans and Toronto’s own takes on the cultish confection
Instead of peaking early and fizzling out like Double Downs, cake pops and other short-lived food fads, the cronut craze is gaining momentum. More than two months after the Dominique Ansel Bakery in Manhattan unveiled the part-croissant, part-doughnut Frankenpastry, lineups are still snaking city blocks, news outlets are still clamoring to cover the sugar-fuelled madness and the bakery has even launched an elaborate new cronut FAQ page. Here, the latest, and silliest, of the cro-sanity.
• People are being really mean to the man behind the pastry
Rival bakery bullies, vegan propagandists and assorted oddballs have gotten so intense with their criticism that Dominique Ansel has resorted to issuing lengthy, defensive statements via Facebook.
• Cronut scalping has become a viable career…
At a reported $12 an hour, it beats New York’s minimum wage by almost five bucks and you get to spend lots of time outdoors. A word of caution: the bakery staff has been known to throw suspected scalpers out of the queue.
• …and a possible way to get laid
Opinions were divided on whether this super-creepy, NSFW Craigslist ad was a legit proposition until the writer admitted it was just a joke. The scariest part: after everything else, it didn’t seem that crazy.
• Toronto shops are making their own cronut creations
“Cronut holes” made an appearance at The Stop’s annual Night Market; Clafouti is selling a mutant confection called the “Crookie”, which appears to be a croissant stuffed with Oreos; and Loblaws is claiming to be the original cronut inventor (which would be cool if its so-called cronuts didn’t look exactly like plain old croissants).
