By Sympanie Rosario
Staff Writer
Stoik’s Paws, a pastry shop that features Canadian pastries, opened on May 25 on the Hermosa Pier.
Stoik’s Paws come in a variety of flavors including hazelnut banana, cinnamon sugar, and cheese pizza. The shop also offers organic sodas that are sweetened with agave Intelligentsia coffee.
“This pastry is so popular in Canada,” Chris Stoikos, owner of Stoik’s Paws, said. “I was surprised that no one heard of it here. My brothers and I wanted to bring it to the States, so we decided to pack everything up and move down here. It’s been a pretty cool experience so far.”
Stoik’s Paws were first opened in Canada, but Stoikos and his brothers changed their paw recipe by making it 100% organic. The coffees and sodas are also completely organic. Stoikos hopes that the organic recipe in all of his shop’s products will help bring more customers to the shop.
“It’s really interesting that everything is organic,” junior Jessica Dow said. “When I found out that the pastries are organic, I was really excited because they are delicious and healthy.”
The shop has eight different paw flavors. The Stoikos brothers took the original flavors that are popular in Canada and experimented with them until they created unique and interesting ones that they were happy to offer at their shop.
“It was fun experimenting with the different flavors.” Nick Stoikos, one of the shop’s owners, said. “The flavors that are popular in Canada are very foreign here, and we figured that people might not be courageous enough to try them. We experimented and tested the flavors until we thought that people here would be interested in them.”
Havelnut is the most popular flavor. On this paw, Chris puts a light brush of butter, a hazelnut and chocolate spread, and banana slices on top of the pastry.
“I really like the Hazelnut flavor,” Dow said. “They figured out which toppings match with each other really well. The Hazelnut has just the right amount of nutty flavor and banana. They balance each other out really well.”
This shop’s unique pastry, the “paw” is a Canadian staple. The paw is made by cutting a piece of dough into a shape resembling a bear paw and float-cooking it in canola oil. The pastry is then put on a rack to cool and topped with toppings of your choice.
The shop has both desert paws and dinner paws. The shop’s dinner item is the pizza paw. On the pizza flavor, Chris Stoikos brushes a light layer of butter over the top. He then spreads a layer of tomato sauce and cheese. The cheese and sauce is then warmed with a culinary blow torch. The paw is then topped with a light dusting of italian herbs.
“I like the pizza flavor a lot,” junior Robin Paris. “I live close to Stoik’s so I walk over to the pier for dinner sometimes and order the pizza flavor and the organic root beer. I really like the combination of spices, cheese, and sauce on the paw.”
Since its opening on May 24, there has been a steady stream of customers, but Chris encourages more people to try this new pastry.
“We have a lot of loyal customers already, but we can always use more,” Stoikos said. “Come out and support the shop and take a picture with our mascot Stoik the bear.”
Stoik’s Paws is open from 8am to 3am and located on the Hermosa Pier at 34 Pier avenue.
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