Photograph by Lawrence Bryant
Donut aficionados take note: a thoroughly unobtrusive, donut-and-coffee stand has just opened near the check-in desk on the eighth floor at downtown’s Four Seasons, but the offerings are unique on the donut scene.
The Four Seasons’ accomplished top toque, Chef Fabrizio Schenardi, at left, has recreated the authentic Italian donuts of his old stomping ground. “Bomboloni” means little bombs, as in high-calorie pastries with a distinctive payload, or filling. These donuts may be stuffed with crema in flavors like chocolate and raspberry, but both filling and dough are remarkably less sweet than the typical donut.
Stephen Wancha, director of food & beverages at the Four Seasons St. Louis, called the taste a “muted sweetness,” and for those of us who crave donuts but sometimes find the sugar overload a mite cloying (when your eyelids start to secrete oil, that’s a sign), bomboloni can taste like a donut option for grown-ups.
The freshly opened Italian Coffee & Pastry Bar at the hotel offers Bomboloni alla Crema (filled with cream), Chocolate Bomboloni alla Crema (filled with chocolate cream), and a Cardinals Bomboloni, which is a baseball facsimile filled with raspberry crema. The bomboloni are crimped by hand to seal in the filling, and they fry up into adorable pouches that have a somewhat squashed look.
More traditional donuts include the rainbow sprinkle; the “1904 World's Fair Doughnut,” coated in cinnamon and sugar; and the s'mores doughnut. These, like the bomboloni, have a sweetness that does not overwhelm.
The final offering may reek of the bandwagon , but we refuse to debark: the Bacon Maple Glazed Doughnut is a winner. With a generous quantity of bacon bits mixed into the dough, it’s bacon-ey, mapley, and worth seeking out.
The Bar also offers Lavazza-brand Italian coffee drinks (which pair particularly well with the not-too-sweet dough), muffins, epi loaf (a braided loaf made of pizza dough), ciabatta, croissants, and fruit.
To see a fun video of Cardinals infielder Daniel Descalso making the Cardinals bomboloni in the Four Seasons kitchen, head here.
Italian Coffee & Pastry Bar
6 to 11 a.m. daily
The Four Seasons St. Louis, 8th Floor
999 N. Second St.
314-881-5800
