Ole & Steen's Danish Treats Have Already Captivated The UES

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — It’s just before noon on a Friday September morning and one of the most popular regulars at a new East 87th Street bakery saunters through the front door.

Eames, 3, stops by nearly every day to say hello to the bakery’s workers he loves, give them a few paw-fives and enjoy any crumbs he can find on the floor. He’s apparently unable to walk past the Lexington Avenue storefront without darting to the door.

“It’s all about the regulars,” said Josh Pickens, baker and head of operations at Ole & Steen, who said the store’s business is already exceeding expectations.

“This type of neighborhood really highlights what we’re already good at."

For the most part, they’re pastry-loving humans, and many openly shared that they've quickly incorporated the nordic indulgences into their everyday lives.

But some, like Eames, a Duck Tolling Retriever, are simply adorable pups who just pop in to say hi.

Barely two weeks after their soft opening, the new Upper East Side location of Danish-based bakery Ole & Steen, occupying a former Starbucks location at 1280 Lexington Ave., already has its fair share of regulars.

The new bakery, ubiquitous in Denmark (called Lagkagehuset there), has just five locations in Manhattan, and the Carnegie Hill spot is described as their first expansion into a residential neighborhood.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Ole & Steen will host a grand opening celebration, giving away 250 free cinnamon social slices when doors open at 7 a.m.

And later on Wednesday, legendary New York napkin artist Jason Chatfield will offer free custom illustrations for guests with their pastries between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Pickens spends most of his days, which typically start about 4:30 a.m., overseeing the bakery’s production facility in Maspeth, where hundreds of pounds of rye bread, cinnamon socials, spandauers and other baked treats are created every day.

A baker in his own right — the CIA-trained (Culinary Institute of America, not the wire-tappers) Pickens has been baking for the better part of the last 20 years and now oversees every aspect of the delicious Danish baking facility.

What Ole & Steen has managed to get right, Pickens says, is being able to scale without compromising quality.

“It’s easy to make a singular product really, really well,” he said, “it’s really, really difficult to make products for five or more stores and keep that quality high across the board.”

That means in addition to making sure the goods get to the stores — and customer’s mouths — on time, Pickens is keeping a close eye on everything, from the quick-fermenting hearty whole-grain rye bread dough to the long, labor intensive process to make the company’s most famous delight, the cinnamon social.

“That’s probably the hardest one,” he said of the utrolig populær (incredibly popular) cream-filled cinnamon treat. “Between the ingredients that go into, the lamination [of the dough] to final shaping, it’s like a full-day process.”

Pickens, who has also spent time touring the real-deal Danish delights in Copenhagen (“superior to Stockholm,” he says), says he has a hard time picking a favorite, but if he had to, it might be the kloben bun, filled with raisins and cardamom.

“It’s a really fun balance of spices and raisins and probably my favorite,” said Pickens

In addition to overseeing all of the company’s production, he’s been spending a lot of time in the Upper East Side, helping the newest store open.

Pickens says that in addition to becoming a welcoming, “neighborhoody all-day cafe,” this Ole & Steen holds promise to stand out in a sea already filled with numerous offerings of French patisserie simply because of the company’s Danish roots.

“The French push for detail and excellence in a product and how it visually needs to be perfect, but flavor is secondary,” Pickens said. But the Danish tradition puts “flavor as the first thing on the list, flavor is always a primary focus.”

And plus, it’s one of the few places to buy a Danish whole grain rye bread that is not easily found in Manhattan.

“Compared to our other locations, our bread sales are really hot right now in this neighborhood,” said Pickens.

One customer, after finishing a pastry and a conversation with a stranger, now an acquaintance, agreed.

“I think this is the new neighborhood spot.”