We’ve always been fans of La Saison bakery and its airy, stay-fresh-for-days croissants, let alone the occasional kouign-amann, a sinful indulgence that’s like a delectable, imploded croissant loaded with butter and crested with a double dusting of sugar. Those “forever” croissants are my go-to at home when rocking the croissandwich, be it chicken salad, ham and brie with salted butter or a fluffy egg and cheese with delicately sautéed spinach in olive oil and butter. Since its opening early in the Covid pandemic, La Saison (French for “the season”) has been built a reputation for exceptional and uniquely accented confections and baked goods. Expansion was inevitable, and La Saison has expanded in offerings and locations: A storefront has opened in Charlestown, and now you can get sandwiches and pizza for lunch at either locale.
The sandwiches are anything but your basic shrink-wrapped, snag-it-off-the-shelf fare. Some come on that croissant (tuna salad) or thick, savory focaccia (prosciutto and pesto, or lox and cream cheese), but the ones to go in for are on La Saison’s soft, pliable sourdough bread, which starts from a base (also used for the pizza) fermented for 72 hours.
Specifically, get the olive sandwich, a vegetarian motherlode that features feta cheese, fresh mozzarella, roasted red pepper, arugula, a loving touch of balsamic reduction and a healthy topping of freshly chopped mixed green and black olives with an olive hummus spread to bind it. If you dig olives, this is your culinary heaven from the very first bite. (You can get it without the cheese to go vegan.) It’s a tad messy, but get extra napkins and don’t sweat the dry cleaning bill.
Each sandwich is made from the point of order and can take a few minutes – If you’re in a hurry, order ahead – but hanging out in La Saison’s cozy shop and leering through the thick curved glass at displays of cakes, cookies and savories is part of the ritual, and patience will be greatly rewarded. Mine came up on fresh baked bread that arrived still slightly warm.
Your sandwich gets packed in a spacious to-go box that preserves the careful layering of ingredients without tamping and compacting due to wax paper wrapping and tape. The Cambridge outpost doesn’t have indoor seating space, but there are two tents with heaters in the parking lot, making for a surprisingly spacious and comfortable place to sit and nosh.
Beside those lunchtime pizza rectangles, with varieties that can change by day, a Persian vegan lentil soup is back on the midday menu and, if you’re around on Sundays, there are brioches frite: Sicilian-styled sweet buns filled with vanilla cream.
Because the proprietors of La Saison have Iranian roots, the bakery is open on many major U.S. holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, but check the website to be sure. I dig the fact I can run out after the stockings are done and wrapping paper is strewn across the living room and get some of the lightest, moistest croissants within the Interstate 495 belt for brunch.
La Saison Bakery, 407 Concord Ave., Neighborhood 9 near Fresh Pond, Cambridge
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
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