My second entry in The Hole in the Wall Files is Trung Nam French Bakery in St. Paul, Minnesota, right in the center of an industrial area called Frogtown. Always a working class neighborhood, it’s now home to large Vietnamese, Thai, and Laotian communities, as well as the largest Hmong community in the United States. During the summer there’s even a Hmong farmer’s market with a large selection of hard to find Asian herbs and vegetables.

Trung Nam thrives in the former digs of a Popeye’s restaurant and turns out what are rumored to be the very best croissants in the Twin Cities.

Inside Trung Nam Bakery, looking out on University Avenue

Most of them that are delivered to restaurants around the area, but if you want to pick up a croissant fresh from the oven, you’ll have to do it before 1pm. Actually, that might even be too late. Go earlier.  If you don’t make it, get a giant bánh mì sandwich instead and satisfy your lust with its warm, crusty French baguette.

If you were to judge Trung Nam French Bakery by its outward appearance, you likely would pass it by. But now you know.

Trung Nam French Bakery, 739 University Ave. W., St. Paul, MN. 651-229-0887