Panadero Extraordinario (Blatant Shill)

...as well as a friend, supporter and fellow baker (many decades removed, yo.)

Everybody already knows about his cookies, brownies, stollen!... all the sweet stuff. No need to gild the lily in his dulce department.

What constantly surprises me (and subsequently surprises others) are an invention of his own, Los Copetines.

Savory, salty, elegant little sonsabitches that you can barely stop yourself from eating. We've served them on multiple occasions and they are always the first to disappear.

Surprising in that when I mention picking up some snacks from Sugar & Spice, someone invariably says, "Oh, well we need something other than cookies." Then, if there's anybody in the room that has ever gorged themselves on Frankie's copetín there follows a chorus, "NO! You haven't tried the SALTY ones!"

He's got a pizza flavor with cheese, oregano and pepper; a cheese and nuts variety that beer drinkers rave about; a pesto flavored one that caused a friend of mine to burn some serious shoe leather when his local boliche ran out; and a one that he calls fugazza that could very well replace one of your regular grocery staples.

A mi they're a fascinating invention. On one hand there's nothing like them... but on the other hand, there's something very Buenos Aires about them. I used to see little tiny delicate savory squares show up on the "ingredientes" that would come with a beer at many places in the city. Now you don't get much more than some peanuts and the little "palitos". You really have to go to a hotel bar nowadays to get them or show up at a confitería that still hangs on to the old tradition.

Frank's are a fusion of those little delicacies and the yanqui propensity toward stronger flavors and bigger portions. An extranjero baker that knows his Buenos Aires.

I have no idea where I can recommend you buy them... other than his joint on Guatemala 5419. Lots of shops around town carry them but they're all terrible about keeping them on the shelves... once you eat a few, you can understand that there might be a problem keeping them in stock.