When the Chevy Chase bistro Little Beast announced that they would be bringing back their bakery, Washingtonian senior editor Andrew Beaujon celebrated the long-awaited D.C. arrival of an exotic breakfast treat: The Cruffin.
But not so fast! Other astute readers rightly noted that Junction Bakery and Bistro in Del Ray (1508 Mt. Vernon Avenue) already has cruffins. So who gets to lay claim to crushin’ the first cruffin in the region?
https://twitter.com/beckyhammer/status/1217170699904831491
For those of you who don’t know, cruffins are the final result of a Dr. Moreau-esque hybrid where a croissant’s flayed dough is wrapped around the flesh of assorted fillings, and stuffed into a muffin mold.
In accordance with Betteridge’s law of headlines: no. Junction’s cruffins preceded the re-opening of Little Bistro’s bakery, but other bakeries around the region had them first.
It is true that Junction Bakery has cruffins in a variety of flavors. Today (Wednesday) those flavors are chocolate hazelnut and raspberry. There are no egg or dairy-free options, so this vegan ALXnow reporter could not personally vouch for them, but others in the restaurant and on Twitter claimed to enjoy them.
Staff at the restaurant said they’ve been very popular, but noted that Junction Bakery was not the first in the area to stuff a cruffin.
A Washingtonian article from 2016 said Bayou Bakery in Arlington’s Courthouse neighborhood has cruffins, though that was on Fridays only at the time and staff said they don’t currently have cruffins available. Eater credited Bayou Bakery with introducing the cruffin to the region.
Staff at Junction Bakery said they started serving cruffins six months ago, so that would also not pre-date Little Beast’s initial bakery run in the fall of 2018.
