Here are a few new dishes that I’ve tried recently.

The Breakfast Sandwich and Breakfast Sweet

Yinz breakfast sandwich served on a rye English muffin with a special Yinzer sauce(mustard and ketchup

Pastel de natas, filled with a wonderful custard filling

The Ugly Duckling courtesy of Chaval’s Damian Sansonetti and Illma Lopez opened today to an overflow crowd that spilled onto the street waiting to get in for some superb pastries and sandwiches. It’s part of a mini food mecca that has grown along Danforth Street in Ruski’s territory. Zu Bakers, the 211 Danforth and now Ugly Duckling comprise this delicious corner of food fare. The Duckling, however, is in its own realm, serving up Illma’s divine pastries, excellent coffee and breakfast sandwiches served on Illma’s signature buttermilk English muffins.

The trocadero

There’s a paucity of pastry-chef retailers in the city, and Lopez is one of the best contenders. Unlike the few that we have elsewhere, the café will be open multiple days during the week, eventually operating at least 5 days a week. None of this weekend stuff like Norimoti or Belleville or the erratic schedules at Scratch Baking and Tandem-all great bakeries that tease with sweets rather than satisfying daily. Standard is the only one open with regular hours, but they’re often sold out by the afternoon.

Convivial setting; top, Illma Lopez greets everyone

By the time I got there late this morning the kitchen struggled to keep up with demand from the surge of fans inside the café. You can stand on line to order take out or sit at the 20 or so seats along the u-shaped counter to have your food. I got the trocadero, which is a puffy brioche bun filled with lemon cream. It’s so lusciously good that you wonder how you could ever eat another type of brioche. While the menu is limited to start look for the gamut of goodies that are sure to come out of this kitchen. And if you live in the neighborhood you can walk there-since parking is difficult, though not impossible. Don’t, however, park in the lot next door, which is reserved for the adjacent building.