Inside Ladurée Macarons' New Soho Shop

No more taking the 6 train (or an airplane) for macarons: Ladurée opened today in New York's SoHo neighborhood, and there's a lot of room for that line to form. The French "luxury bakery" brings more than those double-decker ganache-filled cookies to the former Barolo space: The tea room also features two large dining rooms and a garden serving a full menu, and the basement bakery will send up a full range of cakes and pastries. (We loved the canelés and flaky palmiers we tried the other week, prepared by the Parisian pastry chefs.) Better yet: There's a full bar.

The first room, named after the French decorator Madeleine Castaing (Ladurée's rue Bonaparte location is in her former showroom), mixes leopard print and stripes with antiques shipped over from the owning family's collection beneath the hand-painted ceiling. ("We need to clouds to be a little moodier," said USA co-president Elisabeth Holder 12 days before opening.) The garden terrace–facing Salon Pompadour is a spot-on slice of Versailles, and will likely see as many tourists beneath its wedding-cake ceiling. Speaking of which, it turns out they do custom cakes—we watched the pastry team decorating a few tiers, and are envisioning LET THEM EAT CAKE frosted on the next going-away cake at BA.

At 398 West Broadway, Ladurée is practically around the corner from Dominique Ansel. When we asked him about his new neighbors at the Ferran Adrià dinner, he said he was excited to have another bakery nearby. One good line deserves another.