Trung Nam French Bakery, July 5

Christian and I did a quick visit to Trung Nam French Bakery in Frogtown on July 5, 2010. OK, so the ambience leaves a bit to be desired. A restaurant surrounded by chain link fencing doesn't have the most appealing street presence. Reminds us of those years we spent in the gulag, but we try not to dwell on that. And, perhaps it's time to take down the "Popeye's" sign from the side of the building, left over from the building's previous fast food tenure. But this Vietnamese-French bakery has a long history in St. Paul. Years ago, it was in a sad little strip mall near Minnehaha Bowling Alley; Christian thinks it was also on Lexington Ave., just off University Ave. This restaurant survives because it knows how to make a great croissant. It has a few other menu items, including banh mi (a pork sandwich that I recall from a past visit was tasty) and pho, but today we stopped just for croissants and coffee. The filling in the strawberry croissant was minimal, but Christian assures me this is the French tradition. Good bakeries are hard to come by, and University Avenue has lost some over the years--we're hoping this one stays. We'd gladly do forced labor within the confines of this site's fenced perimeter if our daily reward was a meal of Trung Nam croissants. Joel