Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
Traditional Italian pastries, sweet and savory, from Panificio Sarrica in Lafayette.
This summer, Gina and Santi Sarrica, owners of Sarrica’s Little Italy in Lafayette, have opened up a bonafide Italian bakery at the front of their popular pizza café. On Fridays–Sundays each week, before they begin to serve the menus of authentic Italian lunch and dinner classics they’ve become locally famous for, they’ll now offer a selection of specialty Italian desserts, pastries, and artisanal breads under the moniker Panificio Sarrica. They’ll also offer viennoiserie—which translates to “things of Vienna,” and is a special classification of yeast-leavened breads that includes perennial favorites such as pain au chocolat, croissants, and Danishes—and trompe l’oeil pastries (delicate confections shaped like a fruit or a nut and generally filled with a decadent mousse or sponge cake). These special pastries take a high level of skill to make and are often hard to find. Panificio Sarrica opens its doors promptly at 8 am and closes after all the pastries are sold out. In October, Sarrica's will also open the gates on a Colombian-style burger joint on the front patio, honoring Gina's heritage alongside Santi's.
3546 Ambassador Caffrey Pkwy, Lafayette.
