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Planning French themed birthday, need help with the desserts!!!

Hi everybody, I am planning a French themed birthday party for my 13 year old sister. I want to have a dessert table with macarons and other French pastries, but I am having trouble making decisions. I know that the general consensus is that laduree has the best macarons but I looked at the flavors and know she won't like them she would enjoy more flavors like nutella, s'mores, pb & j. Does any body know what place in NYC has flavors like those and still taste good? Also I want to get pastries from financier. Can anybody tell me if they taste as good as they look. Also which ones to buy, she loves chocolate and almond anything, but she hates coffee and anything custardlike.

Thanks everyone.

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    1. I've had terrible experiences with the pastries at Financier, stale macarons and cakes, off-flavors. Their quality has plummeted over the years with their rapid expansion.

      You'd be better off getting pastries at any number of places, Laduree, Lady M. Chikalicious. I really enjoy the carre chocolat at Laduree, the checker cake is really fun at Lady M. and the chocolat doughsaint at Chikalicious.

      1. Financier is not very good.

        Pomme Palais
        Francois Payard
        Dominique Ansel
        Eclair Bakery

        And a step down would be La Bergamote.

        1 Reply
        1. re: thegforceny

          Dominique Ansel looks good but their stuff seems a bit pricey to me. La bergamote seems more reasonable

        2. Macaron Parlor, which kathryn recommended, does great macarons with nut butters and given that they have s'mores on the current menu, I think it's the natural choice for you.

          As far as pastries go, you can do better than the dry pastry at Financier. Dominique Ansel has a lot of good chocolate and nut pastries. The Paris-Brest, pain au chocolat or nutella bread should satisfy. The pastries at Pomme Palais, Epicerie Boulud and Payard are also good. Skip the canelés and mocha if your sister really doesn't like custard or coffee flavors.

          2 Replies
          1. re: JungMann

            Macaron parlor looks perfect thanks to both you and katheryn for the recommendation

            1. re: akimat21

              Also love Macaron Parlour. My favorite flavor is the candied bacon with maple cream cheese (real piece of bacon in each macaron).

          2. Have you thought about hiring someone to make crepes for you and fill them with sweet fillings...such as Nutella, bananas, chocolate, ice cream ?