State Fair stunt foods, except for the simple, golden-hour corn dog, usually aim to boost shares on grid posts rather than be memorable or flavorful. The first bite of a State Fair-inspired food is fun; the second one is like getting round-housed by Ryu from Street Fighter (if his feet were made of funnel cakes or yellow cheese). I still will die on a hill that the worst food I’ve ever consumed was the fried beer at the State Fair of Texas, a floppy ravioli stuffed with weird, turgid beer and stuck in the deep end of a queso pool.
Something else entirely is going on at Sugar & Sage bakery. Their newest creation, the Cristo-Aman™ (its name is trademarked!), debuted on September 14 and is no stunt. It’s immediately a beautiful monster of ham and sweet, nutty Gruyère cheese; like a bolt of lightning that struck a Kouign-amann. Imagine a croissant cupcake with a crown of butter and sugar-crested jewels that rips apart into tender, chewy layers. It’s alive, and it’s luxurious.
You must meet this unholy offspring of the deeply crusty, sugar-charred waves of a Kouign-amann and the salty, melty, jammy shores of a Monte Cristo sandwich. Yes, oh yes, a light dusting of powdered sugar coats it, and it comes with a sweet, trumpet note of bright fig jam spiked with chiles.
Despite the gimmicky-sounding concept, this bakery has invented something far better here. Surely, a roving influencer will soon name this Dallas’ “hidden gem viral Monte Cristo.” Sure. Fine. Still, the difference between a stunt and something memorable, something timeless and tasty, is the thoughtfulness with which it’s made. This sandwich is full of caring hands, unbothered by trends. (When was the last time you ordered a Monte Cristo, and why was it at Bennigan’s?)
The idea was born years ago after a trip to New York. Alison Weinstein, who has had croissants on her mind since she moved to Dallas from the Big Apple over two decades ago, found a seed-dipped, salty-meets-sweet croissant in the city with her daughter that they never forgot. She has finally brought her version to Dallas. Luckily, Weinstein has her own mad scientist working in the Sugar & Sage kitchen: Executive Chef Jill Bates knows the spell of laminating. She’s spent time as lead pastry genius at Fearings at the Ritz-Carlton, Cafe Momentum, and Craft Dallas at the W Hotel. Her goal was to keep it simple, hot, and fresh.
So, at Sugar & Sage, which is using this Monte Cristo with a Kougin-Amann as a bun to launch a new fall menu, they’ve evolved one of history’s stranger sandwiches into a piece of buttery, sweet-heat art. (It even arrives with a printed-on-paper, limited-quantity footnote, inked by Chef Bates, that there are only eight of these beauties at the time of ordering.) The Cristo-Amann is a symphonic treat—cracking and shredding dough, tender inside and sugar-blasted, undulating waves outside. It’s salty, juicy (a sheet of ham and melting Gruyère cheese), sweet from a tap of powdered sugar, and a pulse of heat from the chile-flaked fig jam.
It’s baked in-house, so it will be served hot, sugar-crackly, and right to your face. I don’t smoke and never have, but halfway through a hot, crusty sandwich, I wanted to light up like Sean Connery in Dr. No.
“We don’t take that for granted,” says Weinstein. The delicate construction of a Kougin-amann, then layered with good ham, great cheese, and spicy jam—baked and put together in-house—is the reason for the extremely limited quantities. Tough break, influencers. That’s fine, I say—please don’t shortcut in the name of all that it is ham and cheese. Dearest butter pastry, you take all the time you need.