From the crisp croissants to heavenly French toast, you may never want to leave Millcreek’s new Beaumont Bakery

Millcreek • Beaumont Bakery, a new cafe serving house-made pastries, breakfast, lunch and soon dinner in an elegant space, is a welcome addition to a neighborhood hungry for a local bistro.

Aside from its prominent location on Wasatch Boulevard near Skyline High School, it feels undiscovered and in flux. The lack of a website, bare-bones social media presence, and imperfect but improving service suggest a work in progress. But diners will be rewarded if they bring patience.

From the beginning, the restaurant has been trying to deliver what customers want. Although the drive-thru started serving in the spring, diners kept coming to the door, so the owner indulged them.

She could relate: Jana Whiting, who also co-owns the local chain Pizza Limone with her husband, says she created Beaumont to satisfy her own cravings for French pastries. “Living up here, we’d be like, ‘Where can we go for a croissant?’ We just couldn’t find it.”

Now, diners at Beaumont can find not only crisp and doughy croissants (filled with chocolate, Nutella, almond paste or ham and cheese) but also crullers, cruffins and cookies, along with savory breakfast meals and gourmet sandwiches.

The cruller ($3), a doughnut made with pâte à choux dough, lands on the tongue like buttered air followed by a hint of salt from the salted glaze. They sell out every day, Whiting says. The cruffins ($4.50), standing like sentries with whipped cream hats behind the pastry counter at the bakery’s entrance, look like muffins but have the flaky, pull-apart layers of a croissant and are filled with lemon cream or seasonal pumpkin cream with chai topping. Sugar coats the outside. The cookies ($3-$3.50) are densely creative: s’more flavor with toasted marshmallow, peanut butter with oatmeal and coconut.

The pastries and croissants are made daily and are delightful. The butter is European, made of 84 percent butter fat. The milk is from Cache Valley-based Rose Hill Dairy. The bread for the sandwiches is made from either Whiting’s recipe for Beaumont or a tried-and-true recipe from when she and her husband launched Aspen Mills Bread Co. (The company continues to sell bread wholesale to places like Whole Foods and Costco.) Coffee products are made from Campos Roastery, an Australian-based company that recently opened in Salt Lake City.

While it already seems every cafe has avocado toast, Beaumont’s ($9.75) brings Mexican flavors, elevating what has become a simply salted staple. Two pieces of seeded bread, instead of sourdough, form the base. The liberally portioned avocado slices sit on a tangy aioli and are topped with a coating of cotija cheese and roasted corn. The menu doesn’t say so, but you can also get it with a poached egg.

There are several off-menu items, including a hamburger and eggs Benedict on the weekend, because diners asked.

The corn, cheese and avocado also make an appearance in the Beaumont burrito ($8.75), a pressed and filling affair made of scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes and a tomatillo-jalapeño sauce. I meant to save half but couldn’t stop myself from finishing it.

The real reward is the French toast ($7.75): four slices of pillowy croissant bread, made from croissant dough that has been braided and baked. Dusted in powdered sugar, it arrives with berries and banana brûlée on the side. The browned butter bourbon syrup is heavenly — it’s buttery and sugary without being too heavy.

Beaumont serves six sandwiches ($7.75-$11.75) with a side salad or fries. The turkey ($11.75) is a favorite. It’s roasted on the bone in the restaurant and served on a cranberry spice bread. The multigrain bread is a sturdy base for the Greek-salad-like veggie sandwich ($10.75), filled with housemade hummus, olives, feta and roasted red pepper.

Breakfast and lunch are served until 7 p.m., but Whiting plans to add a separate dinner menu soon, now that she has a full liquor license.

I’ve heard grumbling about the prices — some of which have increased since the opening. But overall, they’re similar to top bakeries in downtown Salt Lake City and Sugar House.

The bakery’s name means “beautiful mountain” for good reason. Nearly floor-to-ceiling windows provide close up views of Mt. Olympus, as does the outdoor patio. Beaumont is going for beauty, with single, fresh flowers decorating the tables. One wall is draped in wallpaper textured with gold buttons and another in a jungle of pink, blue and green flowers designed for Instagram. A high-backed green couch invites lounging. The textures and layers seem to echo the nine layers of pastry I can count in my fresh peach and cheese Danish. The focus on presentation is evident. I overheard a diner compliment the pretty composition of her beet salad.

I’m excited to return for a new dinner menu and late-night desserts and small plates, as Whiting has planned.

But the service needs to improve. Part of the problem may be the layout: The counter at the bakery’s entrance, stocked with pastries and coffee, seems to beckon a “grab and sit” approach, but those planning to eat in are channeled to sit and order from a menu, without any clear shortcut to the goodies that tease them on arrival. (Once, I practically had to insist before they’d let me order at the counter and take my pastry to my seat.) Then, when seated, it can take a while to fulfill the orders, even for already-made bakery items. Over a couple of visits, I’ve watched other customers head to the counter to get coffee refills or the bill.

Happily, Whiting says she’s working on it. I’m willing to be patient because the food is worth the wait. After a recent long and leisurely Sunday breakfast, I wondered, do I have to leave?