“All the bread and pastries at Rolo’s have been through the wringer with the whole team.” – Chef Kelly Mencin
Meet Kelly Mencin, the Head Pastry Chef & Baker at Rolo’s, a wood-fire focused, elevated comfort food restaurant offering outstanding bread and pastries in Ridgewood, Queens. Kelly is a pastry star, but she probably won’t admit it. In fact, when I first reached out to her and fan-girled over her pastries, sourdoughs, and specialty ice creams – wondering how beloved she must be over at Rolo’s – her first reaction was “Nobody knows me, Liza!”. And, I gotta say, it’s that humble nature that I appreciate about her, that laser focus on the quality of her food, unaware of her growing popularity.
I know for a fact that the people who do know her pastries qualify more as fans than as customers. It’s a personal touch built into her recipes that resonates with people, you sense this genuine drive to make people happy: desserts designed to put a smile on your face. And they do! Just ask my partner, Geoff Rickly!
I started going to Rolo’s religiously after they opened during the pandemic. Because of NYC’s indoor dining restrictions in January 2021, Rolo’s pivoted their sit-down restaurant plans and focused on takeout and delivery, opening instead as a friendly neighborhood gourmet provisions store and morning bakery.
I remember the first time I went with Geoff. He’s a huge pastry lover like me, and I cajoled him into driving down to Ridgewood for his once-a-week cheat day. As per usual, we got one of everything that looked delicious – which was basically the entire bakery menu. And pastry for pastry, bread for bread, everything we sunk our teeth into was excellent. Rolo’s pastries felt super familiar, which made them really approachable, but their taste level far exceeded anything of comparison. They were rustic, non-precious, thoughtfully made recipes that all tasted like a labor of love.
“I won the lotto. I’d say I’m very lucky, but I also worked hard for it.”
A Meticulous & Organized Operation
“Pastry comes pretty naturally to me.”
Kelly’s passion for food started at a young age, baking alongside her parents and grandparents out in Cleveland, Ohio. After high school, she was so determined to work in food, she opted to go straight to pastry school in Rhode Island. Now, with 13+ years of cooking under her belt, Kelly proudly credits her time baking & cooking at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro & Bouchon Bakery in Napa Valley, plus her few years at Gramercy Tavern in New York City for her kitchen skills and taste level as a chef.
She believes her perfectionist, type-A, organized personality is part of what makes her successful in the precise world of bread and pastry. Plus, the years she spent working nights at fine-dining restaurants is torture for someone who’s a natural morning person. So, the opportunity to run her first pastry program at Rolo’s made sense. Even after 10 months on the job, she’s still pinching herself despite the grueling schedule.
What I loved about filming her 6-9 AM morning bake was the dance of it all. First off, she was fully caffeinated and bright-eyed when I arrived at her door. It’s as if I could see her stare inside the Matrix of everything she needed to get done that morning, solo. I’m not sure how she was able to tray up, prep, knead and bake the entire morning menu alone, but her routine seemed effortless, almost like muscle memory. In fact, she moved so fast around her pastry room, the focus on my Sony camera couldn’t keep up!
Rolo’s Elevated Pastries
Bolus Cinnamon Roll, Jam & Biscuits, Gougeres, Chocolate Brownies, Monster Cookies
“I think on the 4th iteration of the Monster Cookie, I knew it was it.”
If you stop in at Rolo’s, you need to start with their Jam & Biscuits and “Bolus”, a Dutch-style cinnamon bun/cinnamon roll hybrid. They are my two favorite baked goods there. I’ve tried many-a-biscuit in NYC (I even love to bake them at home), and it’s rare when one truly stands out. Her jam & biscuits with creme fraiche is a gorgeous, full butter, flaky bite! Just so homey with an A+ feel-good factor.
In addition, the bolus is unlike any cinnamon bun experience I’ve had. It’s truly unique and interesting, the milk bread dough giving it a nice softness and creamy bread flavor against the dark muscovado cinnamon sugar. The only thing is that you need to eat these right at 9 am when they come out fresh from the oven. They are even more heavenly warm!
The Monster Cookies are also a fan favorite. They are large and playful with crisp sugary edges and soft, chewy centers. Kelly worked hard on nailing this recipe, making it pop with 4 kinds of flour, M&Ms, ground pretzels, malt powder and chocolate chips. All the sweets she loves, packed into one cookie. A treat yo self option for kids and adults alike!
If you have extra space in your belly, it’s worth trying Kelly’s extra special take on “cheese puffs” gougeres and her personal favorite: Rolo’s chocolate brownie. I’m not normally a brownie person, but her cakey, fudgy brownie won me over!
Sourdough Focaccias
The other star of Rolo’s bakery program is the focaccia (which uses the same dough as their sandwich ciabatta). Kelly rotates through seasonal focaccia flavors, but always has a few mainstays on their OG menu: Grape & Olive, Tomato Pie, and Plain Focaccia. The Grape & Olive and Tomato Pie are not to miss. The roasted grapes have this concentrated sweetness that compliments the briny olives. It’s chunky focaccia that’s fun to munch on with all the little bursts of juice exploding. The tomato pie is a sleeper hit, even with Geoff who hates red sauce — something about the really bright oregano and sliced garlic makes it sing.
If you’re lucky enough to be there for corn season, definitely try their corn focaccia. Not only is the focaccia dough perfectly salted and slightly tangy, but the bread comes out of the combination oven luxuriously spongy and moist from the high hydration dough, fresh Burlap & Barrel spices, and beautiful olive oils. The crusty edges are delicious!
Scoopable, Chewy, No-Yolk Ice Cream
When the owners asked Kelly to start a specialty ice cream program at Rolo’s, she had no idea how fast it would catch on. To their advantage, Ridgewood, Queens is a bit of an ice-cream desert. There aren’t many ice cream shops around the family-friendly neighborhood, so word of their handcrafted, whimsical flavors traveled fast. During the height of the summer pandemic, they were selling close to 100 pints of ice cream per day!
Being a bit of an ice cream snob, I can tell you that Rolo’s ice creams are top-notch. They are creamy, airy, soft, and also dense like great gelato. Plus, very rich in flavor. Whatever the flavor is on the pint, it definitely jumps out at you, which I adore. Kelly is particularly proud of their ice cream’s chew factor, a characteristic she believes is very important in good ice creams.
Flavors
I’ve had a number of amazing flavors there, but a few flavors of note: Sweet Cream (in the video she talks about designing this base flavor from old food memories), Burnt Cinnamon, Roasted Peanut, Malted Cookie Dough, Grapefruit Amaro Sorbet, and Marscapone Morello Cherry.
“I think people notice how much fun I’m having.”
What’s Next at Rolo’s
There’s always something exciting going on as the seasons change and holidays roll through the restaurant. However, Kelly mentioned a few BIG things she’s currently planning to upgrade her pastry program: an expanded dessert menu for dinner, custom cakes AND ice cream cakes available for pre-order, holiday flavors of ice cream, like egg nog or mulled cider sorbet, plus pies galore! So be on the lookout for these special orders. In fact, right now, they are offering a Thanksgiving Dinner Kit you might be interested in with Apple Crumble and Sweet Potato Pumpkin Pie.
All in all, I hope you enjoy this tour de force behind the scenes in Kelly’s small, but productive pastry room pre-9am. The Morning Bake is an art form, and this is a performance you need to see!
Thanks for watching and supporting our new season of food. curated.! Let us know if you head out to Rolo’s for their ice cream, bread and pastries. We’d love to hear your feedback in our comments below. Happy Eating!
xx @SkeeterNYC
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