C'est La Vie - Pastries Breakfast & Dinner

Absolutely love this place. The most authentic French pastries you will find in Sarasota. I've been to France many times and this is the place I go when I need a sweet fix. Everything is freshly made. French owned. I have never had a bad pastry here. Their croissants are HUGE! I highly recommend their chocolate chip croissant. Its decadent, crispy, buttery, with the perfect amount of chocolate chips throughout. I'm partial to a chocolate twist but this is the next best thing, if not better. The apricot croissant is also amazing. Whole apricots inside a buttery, flaky crust. Their St. Honore pastry is to die for. Almost like an almond tart on the bottom with basically a croquembouche on top with mini creme puffs, diplomat cream, and hardened caramel for a nice crunch. The caramel chocolate tart is absolutely amazing, I believe there are nuts in it FYI. The dubai croissant has the potential to be amazing, the chocolate on the outside is delightful, however the pistachio cream/katayfi mix could be better with a pure pistachio cream instead of a brightly colored mix. Overall I absolutely adore this location

The world 'authentic' gets thrown around so much these days, especially by benighted food influencers desperate for a shiny penny. C'est La Vie is a rare exception to the caricaturization of authenticity; it truly is a slice of Paris. Remarkably spacious and positively homely; from the moment you call and are greeted by a heavy French accent over the phone, to the moment you step into this lovely and quaint boulangerie you are borne through time to the France of yesteryear. Spent a good hour conversing with the ever convivial, open-hearted Christophe, who founded the bakery in 1997. You can tell he and Géraldine have poured their souls into this establishment for the past three decades. Unfortunately, it has taken us until now to discover this unhidden treasure; even though we scout for boulangeries far and wide, in every peak and crevasse, in our many times in Sarasota we have somehow managed to miss this one; even while perusing main street. We had always thought OfKors was it, and for us OfKors is anything but its name; it feels like an emblem of mediocrity [with pedestrian quality, devolving portions and skyrocketing prices through the years.] C'est La Vie's array is prolific and alluring, and though next time we will dabble in myriad viennoiserie, this time was all about the Parisian flan. In a country dominated by vanilla flan wherever flan can be found at all, it is wonderfully refreshing to discover adaptations with varying profiles; this time was apricot, and we are eager to return for the coconut twist (wishing it was available that day). A fine flan, or a fine kouign amann, are the very pinnacles and highlights of any French boulangerie; and though this one unfortunately does not carry the latter, the former is mouthwatering luscious. The apricot presence is unfortunately faint; it is more of an egg-forward vanilla flan topped with a slice of apricot, but the two are married seamlessly. I wish apricot purée or shards were interlaced throughout; but I do get weak in the knees by a good vanilla flan, and this one is excellent. Yes, to the likely horrid dismay of any true French boulanger (sorry, Christophe! 🙃), we refuse to eat any Parisian flan cold; we find its scents and flavours muted and dulled. So, as we learned at HEC Paris' Entrepreneurship and Innovation program, we tend to break functional fixedness and if not reinvent, then in the very least play around with, the wheel. This one we bruléed and topped with flaky salt, Les Comtes de Provence apricot jam, and Yuzu Valrhona; resulting in a luxurious pomme purée texture (our highlight of the experience, and of C'est La Vie's rendition) and sweet richness balanced by tart and salty notes. Thick and ultra velvety, Christophe's flan is full-bodied with its dulcet sugariness interwoven into the shortcrust. Especially comforting. Some discoveries mark a fond, stand-alone memory; others mark the beginning of a new chapter. We will be re-visting C'est La Vie so long as it stands, whenever we are near.

First time there and we loved the food! From a French-Euro perspective, a bit pricey…but once in a while you just need something better! Unfortunately they did not have a GF version for the quiche - one of my favorite dishes - but surprisingly, you can order your crepe with buckwheat. Not sure how they deal in the kitchen with celiac - eat first, question later - that is on me! Nevertheless, who knew you could have an amazing crepe made out of buckwheat! And if you didn’t know, they make their bread locally in Sarasota and deliver to the restaurant every morning at 7. C’est La Vie is C’est Bon in my book!