Philly Cronut Wars Yield First Known Casualty

Much has happened in the realm of Cronuttery this week. Tuesday, the world learned that the Royal Cafe in Wayne had recently begun selling its first “cro-nuts” for $9.43 a pop. Why the insane price? The Royal Cafe was buying them from Swiss Haus Bakery in Center City for $5, and well, I’ll let Royal Cafe owner, Torpekay Habashzada  explain the rest.

“I’m not stupid. I need to make a profit,” said Habashzada. “If someone wants to drive to Philly and pay $35 for parking and gas, they can do that.”

Outraged that his hand-crafted “Swiss Cro-Cremes” were being marked-up, Swiss Haus owner Jim HAUSman emailed me to announce he would stop selling to the Royal Cafe immediately.

We take offense that the Royal cafe has taken our product, doubled the price, and renamed it as if it is their own. In addition, we suggest to all of our customers to eat the product within 6 hours of its making for maximum freshness and flavor. Due to these facts and others, we have made a decision to discontinue selling the cro-creme to the Royal Cafe.

By the time I reached Habashzada by phone earlier today, she’d received Hausman’s message. “I don’t carry them anymore,” she said, adding with a touch of whatever that “not too many people in Main Line know about it. They were not interested in buying it.” For those of you are interested in buying suburban Cronuts, just hit up Paris Baguette Bakery in Elkins Park, which makes them in-house and sells them for $3.50. Or, if you can stomach paying $35,000/hr for parking in Philly, check out Polito’s and Frangelli’s, also selling cheap ‘nuts.