April Patisserie is a bakery at Unit 4/160 Victoria Street in Te Aro, Wellington, holding a 5.0 Google rating, and it shares news of its baking through its Instagram page rather than a website.
A patisserie differs from a straight bread bakery: much of the work — folding butter through dough in thin layers, setting crème pâtissière, proving croissants overnight — happens across two or three days, which is why the cabinet is fullest and the laminated pastries crispest first thing in the morning. Small city pastry kitchens often bake to a set rhythm and sell out of the popular lines before midday, so regulars arrive early and ask what came out of the oven that day rather than ordering from memory. When comparing patisseries, visible layers and a clean, buttery snap are the honest signs of good lamination.
Tucked among Te Aro's shops and cafés, it is one for Wellington's early risers.