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Trying to pin down this pop-up might have you running around, but the journey is worth the effort. Lamina owner Luis Lujan has been baking in Portland since 2019. Before that, he learned the pastry craft in Southern California via a lineage that traces back to French pastry chef Dominique Ansel, inventor of the cronut. Lujan has learned his lessons well. He makes and sells jarred chocolate and praline products and has an impressive viennoiserie repertoire, including popular guava-and-cheese pastelitos. But the main draw at Lamina are the scarce Breton beauties called kouign-amann. The words are Celtic for “butter cake,” which hardly does these precious pastries justice. The croissantlike dough, covered in a thick swath of butter, then folded and rolled out over and over to create its defining honeycomb-interior structure, also includes a layer of sugar within its midst. When the cinnamon roll-sized pastries are baked, the sugar caramelizes, resulting in a wondrous sticky, buttery bun. Lamina offers traditional kouign-amann along with a variant that is inoculated with a vein of praline pastry cream. What could be better? Arguably Lujan’s new sweet and savory kouign-amann, a creation that includes cubes of speck—a type of spiced, dried ham—and a barely discernible whisper of rosemary. Lamina most frequently pops up weekends at Kalesa Coffee (in the back of the Gotham Building), but follow it on Instagram for its latest location.
Location and hours vary, @lamina_pastry. $6-$7.50.