Flaky, buttery croissant and coffee: My perfect morning meal at homey Lawrence bakery
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There’s an unassuming white house next to a roundabout just south of downtown Lawrence. It used to be a laundromat, but now a small black sign there reads “bakery.”
Inside that house is comfort in the form of an expertly crafted croissant stuffed with ham and cheese, paired with a perfect cappuccino.
I started going to 1900 Barker as a student at the University of Kansas. The coffee shop, named for its address off 19th Street, was still fairly new, and just a short walk from my apartment.
The day I walked the hill for my graduation, I started the morning with a quick dash to that little white house, where a coffee and a ham and cheese croissant helped prepare me for my last hurrah as a KU student — and recover from a long night of celebration.
Nearly four years later, I moved back to Lawrence from Kansas City, and the shop opened a second location. Conveniently I only needed to alter my route a bit to drive past it on my way to Topeka to cover the state Legislature.
A ham and cheese croissant and coffee from the shop are my go-to on mornings when I’m running late. But even better is that same, wonderfully flaky, croissant paired with a cappuccino on a slow morning, when I can sit in the cafe with a book.
The cappuccino blends strong, smooth espresso and sweet milk. (Owner Taylor Petrehn says the milk comes from Hildebrand Farms in Junction City, Kansas, and he’s met the cows.)
Pastries are the biggest profit driver for the bakery, and it’s known for its croissants.
“Everybody has kind of a romantic idea of a croissant,” Petrehn said. “When people ask us about our pastries they kind of have this sort of, like, nostalgic memory of, like, the Eiffel Tower and a pastry.”
“Our pastries are that kind of thing in the middle of Kansas.”
He’s not wrong, and I’ll admit that hint of romanticism is part of what draws me into the cafe on a lazy weekend morning or day off. But, in my humble opinion, 1900 Barker has perfected the art with buttery layers wrapped around fresh ham and white cheddar cheese.
One bite and it’s easy to see how Petrehn’s business has survived a tough market of coffee shops for eight years to become a staple in Lawrence.
It feels like a simple pleasure, but that single croissant is the result of three days of work. The staff prep the pastries at Petrehn’s other business, Taylor’s Donuts. They start by mixing 20 kilos of dough in a large spiral mixer, letting it rise and punching it down to create flavor and letting it ferment.
The next day the dough is laminated — sandwiched with a slab of butter and rolled and folded into about 30 layers. Then it is rolled into its final size, stretched, and rolled into the final shape.
The croissants rest overnight, allowed to rise in a hot box and baked the next morning before their final delivery to a cafe.
Petrehn prides himself on not cutting corners, and crafting an exceptional product.
When he and his brother started the business in 2015, their mission was simple: to create something that was easy to enjoy and do it in a space where customers could see the process for themselves.
“It’s like a flaky croissant full of ham and melted cheddar, you don’t have to teach somebody how to enjoy that,” Petrehn said. “But if they can see the process through our open concept, that really just kind of helps sell it, you know, and gathers people around this idea of food being this community thing.”
It worked on me.
1900 Barker can be found at 1900 Barker Ave. or 816 Massachusetts St. in Lawrence. The ham and cheese croissant is $6.75, the cappuccino is $4.
This story was originally published October 3, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
