Even before it officially opened last week, there were lines out the door of the 1706 Westheimer store specializing in world-class bread, pastry and viennoiserie (the fancy name for yeast-leavened doughs that include croissants, brioche, pain au chocolat and pain aux raisins). Houston heard more than a year ago that world-class bakers were being drawn to the city for a project helmed by the Houston-raised Shvartzapel, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., whose internships included working with Alain Ducasse, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud, and whose professional résumé includes Bouley Bakery in New York, Pierre Hermé in Paris, elBulli in Spain, Balthazar in New York, Cyrus in Healdsburg, Calif., and Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery in Beverly Hills, Calif. Thanks to Shvartzapel's personal and professional relationships, a dream team was assembled: executive pastry sous chef Jillian Bartolome from Bouchon Bakery in New York and Cyrus in California; chef de cuisine David Morgan from August in New Orleans, Cyrus and Michelin two-star restaurant Melisse in Santa Monica, Calif.; head bread baker Drew Gimma of Bouchon Bakery and Per Se in New York; assistant bread baker Tony Stein from Bouchon in Beverly Hills; and assistant bread baker Alec Bartee from Cyrus. The culinary team threw itself into research and development while the cafe was being built, which took much longer than anticipated. [...] the wait was over last week when the double-height glass box opened to lines snaking through its gleaming interiors. In addition to baked goods (macarons, tarts, éclairs, cakes, madeleines, cookies, doughnuts, croissants, brioche, sticky buns, baguettes, pannetone and kugelhopf), Common Bond offers savory salads, soup and sandwiches including soft-shell crab po-boy, chicken torta, egg salad, sausage and pepper, and crab with lobster and avocado.
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