Rustica Bakery

Best baguette in town! I had a student from France and it was her favorite place for baguettes.
I am a huge fan of crafted coffee drinks and Rustica always exceeds my expectations. Yes, it takes a little longer than usual, but totally worth the wait! Try their new summer creation — Don Draper! It is Rustica’s take on Old Fashioned — iced coffee with bitters and milk. YUM!

Obviously, all the baked goods look devour-​worthy and freshly baked bread is difficult to resist. But on this particular occasion, I went to get some work done and stuck to a cup of coffee. If you are there after 4pm (as I was), then you only have the option of getting slow-​drip coffee… which I’m not complaining about because yes, it is delicious. However, $ 4? Really? This was for a large which to me seemed like a regular coffee mug. Pair it with a pastry and it quickly adds up. The space inside is nice though, there are some larger tables which are nice to be able to spread out papers and things and it comfortably sat the boyfriend and I being the worker bees that we are. (Side note, he got an English Breakfast tea… it was his idea to take off his watch and put it next to the mug so I could take a Unilocal photo and label it «Tea time»…see photo below). There is outdoor seating available on the sidewalk up to the parking lot and plenty of parking options available along this strip. Next time I’ll probably come for a baked good to take as I stroll around Lake Calhoun and choose a coffee elsewhere.

Great, spacious environment with a variety of seating options, inside and out, but if you’re looking for an outlet, only two exist in the back ¹⁄₃ of the café. Dietary choices are limited if you have any allergies, but the chefs are happy to talk about ingredients if you have a particular curiosity.

It’s pretty loud and very busy everytime I’ve went so don’t expect to get much studying done there but the pastries are to die for. Try the chocolate cookies! Also, don’t leave without a latte or espresso shot. Tastes like dark chocolate. Every coffee I’ve gotten was perfect. Never bitter.

I’ve been in this bakery quite a few times in the past year. The bakery items are very good especially the butter cakes. The only reason I gave 3 stars is because the employees are so snobby! I think it’s a requirement to be hired there. If we didn’t love the buttercake I would never go in there again. Get over yourselves guys, you work in a bakery, you’re not better than anyone else!

I had a bad experience there with one of the employees but the Pecan Shortbread there is so freakin’ unbelievably good, she could have spit at me and I still would give this place 5 stars. Viva La Rustica Bakery!

Holy cats, I’m a huge fan. We got there towards the end of the day so the bakery selection was pretty limited. We tried the honey cherry bread pudding and the walnut oatmeal raisin cookies.
We were blown away! The bread pudding was fluffy (not overly dense) and tasted better than any bread pudding we’ve had. The walnut oatmeal raisin cookies don’t look like much but wow, they are packed with flavor and a delight to a discerning palette.
Definitely a must try if you are a fan of sweets.

Great place for studying, reading, and hangout with friends. A lot coffee shop I have been to only does not have specialty espresso drinks, but this place do! Recommend their maple glove latte. And delicious pastries as well. Definitely will be back again.

Rustica is quaint and homey, but with plenty of seating for you to enjoy your pastry and drink after making your way down their slow line. I’ll give it to ‘em, they make a damn fine cappuccino, even if it takes a while, and their pastry selection is delectable.
It’s largely serve yourself once you get beyond the counter, so be ready to and PLEASE bus your own table so I don’t have to ;)

Hubbie & I live a few blocks away from here so decided to check out Rustica this past Saturday morning before running our usual weekend morning errands.
Our Thoughts–
*Much bigger space than I would have originally thought
*Great meeting place for friends & family, lots of couples with young children.
*Not overly loud, would be okay for reading or catching up on internet stuff, not sure if it would be quiet enough for me to do actual work though.
*Hubbie got a flat white (a real flat white, as opposed to the Starbucks version) while I opted for the Maple Clove Latte.
*Both of us were VERY happy with our drinks & would definitely come back for more. We’d like to check out the «slow» chemex options they offer as well.
*We ordered croissant, pain au chocolat & a baguette.
*Croissant: these were okay, I couldn’t be sure if they were made that morning or not, definitely have had better both in the states & obviously in Europe.
*Pain Au Chocolat: this was, in our opinion, better than the plain croissant & featured a nice darker chocolate. Once again, I couldn’t be sure if these were fresh from that morning or from the previous day which was a little disappointing.
*Baguette: THIS was definitely fresh, it was still warm & was actually fetched for us from the back kitchen, YAY! We enjoyed this later in the day (warmed up in the oven) with some incredible brie we picked up this week @ the store– droolz, so so good.
Overall, we will definitely be checking this place out again for the coffee (both speciality & regular) as well as the breads & would recommend you pop in if you’re in the area.

Get the bittersweet chocolate cookies! They are oh so chewy and chocolatey, even better when you heat it up for a little bit. I had a cookie in the store but ended up buying a pack to-​go for when I travelled around Minneapolis. They also have a variety of other cookies that are just as good.

I used to love Rustica, I still like it, their chocolate orange scones are my favorite. But lately, I feel their prices are overinflated. Case in point, this weekend I bought a panettone, small in size and priced around $ 25! I thought that it would be the best panettone ever since it was from Rustica and they are charging such a pretentious amount. Well, it was very average and I am being generous with that description, it was definitely not premium as the price would suggest. Any average bakery in Italy or South America where panettone is a staple in the christmas season would have done a significantly much better job at a fraction of the price. Don’t get me wrong, Rustica still produces good pastries/​breads, but lately I feel a disconnect between the prices and the value they deliver that leaves me not as content as I used to be when I visit them.
Fernando

God’s Bread-​maker.
We are blessed to have this bakery in the Twin Cities. There is nothing to compare to it anywhere I have been in the whole world! I know strong words, but this place has changed my family’s life! Just the baguette alone is life changing. Crunchy on the outside, moist and airy on the inside. Sometimes we just break off a hunk and gnaw on it like cave-​people. The coffees, sweets, and bread creations (like the olive bread) are out of this world. The sandwiches are ready to go in the case and are better than any sandwich maker I know of. You won’t be disappointed.

Swoon… this bread snob is reduced to tears over all the baked goods that come out of the ovens of Rustica. They have it down as far as product.
The space is a bit clustered though… I hope they expand to a better floor plan soon.

Wonderful coffee, very reasonable price (like, better than Starbucks, and this is for hand made pour over from good fresh beans… not burnt auto drip). We shared this enormous dark chocolate caramel tart thing that was just incredible. Great variety of baked goods that are not crazy sweet, but rather for an adult palate. And $ 6 for a giant pastry for two people that is fresh and handmade. It passes the «I won’t/can’t make this at home test» for eating out.
The non-​pastry food is expensive, so I will stick to coffee and baked goods here in the future, but it’s a wonderful, friendly coffee shop. While the clientele is a little snobby, the people who work there are super nice.

I was pleasantly surprised that we could run in here at 10:30 for Sunday brunch, order, get a table, and have a relatively short wait for our food. (Other places are stand in line, wait for a table, wait for food.) The coffee service is elevated above your Starbucks — they have nice large mugs and do your «froth-​art» on your latte.
The gravlax was tasty — just the right amount and the ingredients were well balanced. The pastries and bread all well made.
Plenty of parking in the lot outside, and overall a nice experience for a casual eat in or takeout Sunday brunch. Pretty easy to take out and walk over to Lake Calhoun as well.

Four words are all you need to know to stop what you’re doing and get to Rustica right now… Bittersweet. Chocolate. Chip. Cookie. I live about three blocks away from Rustica and have probably eaten about 100 of these in the three years I’ve lived in Minneapolis (I’m Paleo, so this is a big deal as cheat meals come few and far between). They’re better than your mother’s cookies. They’re better than your mother’s mother’s cookies. They’re better than any other cookie you’ll have from any other bakery in Minneapolis. You won’t be able to stop at just one. You might even have trouble stopping at five. And you’ll definitely be back to buy more when that craving hits and nothing will do but that double chocolatey, gooey goodness.
Rustica does some other things legitimately, as well. The eclairs, particularly the coffee ones, come close to breaking into Patisserie 46’s echelon, and I’ve had some very good scones and croissants. Their freshly-​baked bread is damn good, too, whether it’s as part of a sandwich, spread with some jam, or just eaten by itself. The star taken off is for their coffee (believe it’s Dogwood, but it always seems to taste better when I just go to Dogwood instead), and for the price to quantity you get on some of their drinks (looking at you, 12 oz iced latte to go for $ 4+ dollars). But I get it. You’re close to Calhoun. The pastries get me in the door, and they always taste better with some brew, so I won’t fault the place much for pricing to demand/​location.
It’s ALWAYS crowded in here, and there isn’t a ton of space, so I have other coffee shops in town where I find it easier to relax (see Five Watt, Urban Bean, and Bull Run) if that’s what I’m trying to do. But for delicious bakery items and, as Jonathan T so eloquently put it, «OMG @!#&$*() Hadoken Cash Money Millionaires”-inducing cookies, Rustica is where it’s at.

Food & beverage wise, this place gets five stars. Even though the prices are a bit hefty (in general $ 3 – 6 for a pastry), considering the size and obvious quality and love put into it, they’re worth it. Plus like every other person has said, they’re DELICIOUS. The éclair is amazing — the dough is soft and tender, the cream is rich and smooth, and the chocolate glaze on top is real, quality chocolate, you taste the chocolate, they’re generous with the swipe of chocolate, amazing chocolate. I also got a bostock, which reminds of the Asian dessert toast, which is a thick piece of semi-​sweet toast, toasted, and smeared with butter and condensed milk. The bostok is fantastic too, with a crumbly sweet topping — not too sweet, and not too rich. And considering my food-​loving friend bought about $ 30 in one visit, I think the quality of the food here is pretty much unrivaled.
All in all, it’s a little expensive but well worth it especially if you’re getting together with a friend or a date. Great place to meet. Plenty of parking, other stores nearby if you want to walk around (Barnes & Noble, Subway, Burger Jones, Massage Envy, a nail place) and you’re in close proximity to Lake Calhoun. Whole Foods, Caribou, and other restaurants are also across the way in case you’re looking to run multiple errands at once.
The only reason it gets 4 stars is because I’m used to cafes where you can settle in for some time and work/​study, with or without friends. Yes, they have wifi, but outlets are in short supply. But admittedly this place is so popular I can see why they don’t encourage people to plant themselves for more than an hour or so. The turnover was often enough that I never saw anyone waiting for a seat, but then again maybe they just didn’t try.

Rustica is legit. It is a coffee shop/​café near lake Calhoun on W. Lake Street. They aren’t fast, but they are good. Pastries are great. They even serve lunch to order half the week!
There is alot of seating inside. Parking lot can be busy because of Burger Jones and the Pizza place, but I always get a spot eventually. This is a great place to meet up with people and catch up.
I recommend the dessert pastries and hot lattes! Latte art central!

They had an amazing pistachio chocolate pastry that was delightful. The outside was buttery and crisp the way I like my pastries and the pistachio/​chocolate mix was subtle and neither overpowered the other.
They had outside seating which was a plus.
Cold press was great-​no sugar or cream needed!
Lots of indoor seating-​perfect for a coffee date to catch up with old friends.
I really like the décor inside — makes you feel comfortable, not pretentious at all.

Not my usual bakery– I typically look for the peanut butter and cookie dough and salted caramel and funky flavors of cupcakes and pretty things However, I had to stop in because of the super high Unilocal ratings.
There was a line and the woman behind me was raving about how great this place was. I ordered the dark chocolate pistachio éclair, to go. I also got a little sample of the polenta bread.
This éclair was awesome. Really good. Lots and lots of filling, which is how I like it, not overly bready. Not overly sweet. The filling didn’t taste too piscachio-​y though. A little spendy. I wouldn’t make a special trip just to come here, but I’d come back.