TRADING QUILTS FOR CROISSANTS: The City Bakery's Birdbath Plots An Upper West Side Expansion

Upper West Siders were dismayed a couple of months ago when Down & Quilt Shop, a longtime fixture in the area, appeared to be ousted from its location at 85th Street and Columbus Avenue. Even though the rent was hiked, the shop simply moved a block west to a larger store on Amsterdam Avenue and a lower rent. So one local store survives, but there was still the chance that the particular neighborhood character of that stretch of columbus could be marred with a garish 7-Eleven or some other national chain, but no, this corner will still stay local. The windows tell us that The City Bakery will install a new branch of its Birdbath, apparently the sixth in the city.

Birdbath touts itself as the greenest possible enterprise, using regionally grown, organic, seasonal ingredients, furnishing its stores with recycled, found, sustainable and vintage materials and even relying on wind power to operate. That's all great, but what we are most excited about is the availability of City Bakery's warm pretzel croissants to nearby Shophound HQ. They aren't exactly French croissants, and they aren't really pretzels at all, but they fall someplace incredibly yummy in between. The Shophound could easily polish off a plate full of these things, so we are relishing Birdbath's coming to the neighborhood.

Or are we? Perhaps we should be a little bit more concerned that, with a Momofuku Milk Bar only a couple of blocks away, a leisurely stroll down Columbus could become a treacherous risk for our waistline. Now we will have to dodge temptation from those croissants along with City Bakery's great big cookies as well as the crack Pie and Cake Truffles that have been tempting us for a while now. At this point, the line at Shake Shack is a welcome deterrent from easy access to those burgers and fries. The next thing you know Doughnut Plant will show up on Columbus to taunt us further, and The Shophoiund will be found in a sugar coma buried beneath a heap of expensive baked goods.
It could happen.

We're not quite sure when Birdbath will start doling out the croissants, but, so far, they haven't even removed the old awning, so we may still have several months to build up our willpower before temptation arrives.

Birdbath coming soon to 518 Columbus Avenue at 85th Street, Upper West Side
Down & Quilt Shop (on Facebook)