Edgina Desormeau's road to opening her spacious new Haitian café Bon Pâtés was circuitous—side quests included a degree from FIT, an import business foiled by supply-chain issues, and a flood-prone storefront (Bonbon Lakay) in Park Slope. But Desormeau comes by her love of baking honestly: growing up in Port-au-Prince, two of her aunts ran local bakeries, and she's been perfecting her patties—her pâtés—for practically her entire life.
And Haitian patties, with their "puff-pastry flaky croissant-type dough," as Desormeau puts it, really need a skilled set of hands to make them as good as the ones you're getting here on Nostrand Avenue. Really: These are phenomenal. The outer crust is shiny with just the right amount of greasy goodness, flakes flying everywhere with each bite, the insides generously stuffed with punchy, often (but not always!) meaty fillings.