308 Armour Road, North Kansas City | 816-474-0055
For 11 years, Le Monde Bakery owner Jef Dover has operated a French-style boulangerie on the main drag of North Kansas City, selling snappy, crusty baguettes — as many as 800 loaves a day — and delicate, flaky croissants, buttery pastries and pan au chocolate, and light lunches. The seating area in his unprepossessing storefront holds only a handful of tables, and the shop closes promptly at 2 p.m. every day except Saturday, when it closes at noon. (Le Monde is closed Sunday.) One of Dover's staff makes fabulous Vietnamese spring rolls Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and the most popular potage is a chicken curry soup that customers stand in line to order. "Customers ask if we put crack on it," says Dover's sister, Connie, who works in the bakery when she's not singing Celtic tunes all over town. No drugs in the soup or the pastries, although the almond croissants are ruinously addictive.
