Cronuts Craze Hits Brooklyn At Le Petit Bakery

Somebody call Huey Lewis, because it's hip to be square again.

After Fort Greene's Le Petit Bakery introduced its own four-angled version of the Cronut™—called, affectionately, "squats"—the Myrtle Avenue sweets shop has been flooded with media attention, with many saying the Brooklyn offering is better than the Manhattan-based original. In fact, resulting crowds caused owners to enforce a "four squats per customer" limit on orders Thursday morning.

If you've been living under a mountain of buttercream and have no idea what all the fuss is about, here's the scoop: Cronuts™ are a hybrid pastry made from croissant dough, then deep-fried and glazed in the style of a traditional doughnut to delicious and buttery effect. The original was the brainchild of pastry chef Dominique Ansel. And months after he started selling them, lines still form with denizens delirious for the stuff.

"I make my own croissants, we fry pastries, and I have all the great toppings and fillings so I thought, 'why not?,' Le Petit Bakery owner Christopher Sanchez told DNAInfo. "We call them 'squats' because after eating one you have to hit the gym and work out."

One of the more gut-busting Le Petit Bakery flavors so far has been a chocolate-filled, maple bacon-topped "squat" that Gothamist editors swooned over earlier this week when there was "no wait" and no limit. But those days are over.

The bakery, located at 354 Myrtle Avenue, only makes 50 a day and they sell out quick. On the heels of its four per person announcement, the Le Petit Bakery Twitter feed offered this advice: "Get here early."