Upper Crust

“Well, we’ve been waiting. Here it is.”

Pinny put the paper down on the counter top and took his saddle bags off. The slightly crumpled copy of The Manehattan Gazette lightly that had gotten a little bit of a bumping about in his bags now teased Cookie as she picked it up and started flipping through to try to find the reviews.

“It’ll be the same place as before darling.” Pinny said with a sigh. “I assume you want to read it this time?”

“This time, yes.” was all Cookie said. “Oh my…”

Unlike before, where they had gotten a review placed on a page with quite a few others this time there was an entire spread. It made Cookie’s eyes go wide as she internally panicked slightly. “That’s um...a good sign right?” she asked.

“I mean I assume so, unless he’s decided to take an entire page just to lambaste us.” Pinny replied. “It looks larger than the previous review. You might want to make a start seeing as we open soon.” he advised.

“Oh right, of course.” the mare replied, clearing her throat. “There’s a large title, it just says ‘A Bakery of Sweet Delights.” Cookie read, immediately this perked her up somewhat. “Well that seems to be good anyway…”

“Dear, the review?”

“Yes…” Cookie said, finally getting to the actual review on the page. “You may recall a short while ago if you are a regular reader of my column that I visited a bakery called Upper Crust. A new establishment in Bronclyn. They did fairly well, I gave them four out of five stars. Their offerings at the time were reasonable. Nothing out of the ordinary if you recall and I gave them a fair tip on how to improve. As many of you know in this city readers, in the food industry in Manehattan it is very much do or die and I urged them to do rather than die.” Cookie kept reading the words, taking a short breath.

“Often I don’t give an establishment like this another visit for six months or more at least, as can be the case during this time either they have innovated or closed up shop and I get the experience of somewhere new. Well, it seems they had been innovating. Usually word about somewhere amazing reaches my ears but I didn’t expect it to reach my ears so soon about somewhere I had practically just set hoof in. Like the rest of the customers my day started by waiting outside for a short time before the bakery opened. One thing I did notice was the size of one customer who I’d get to know a little more, but more on that later. Once I did get in, owing to the large mare who got slightly stuck on her entrance inside, the interior looked the same as ever. However the food on display looked a little different to before. In any case, as I was about to order I decided to ask for some recommendations. That pony I mentioned earlier? The portly one? She was the one who it turns out had been making word reach my ear to revisit so soon. Apparently a one miss Lunar Eclipse is a regular to the bakery and rather than actually having me pick out desserts, she offered me her own bag of already put together goodies saying that it would guarantee I’d write a five star review.” Cookie read out, she took another breath.

“Needless to say I took it straight home, making sure I could get out before she got herself wedged again and hampered my day even further.” Cookie laughed. “Rather than waiting this time until the end of my day and possibly having my appetite spoiled by other eateries I decided to dig in to the small variety of confectionery I had been given. I will just say readers to make this review completely unbiased that in this pre-picked bag that was somewhat thrust upon me there was no bread included so unfortunately I can’t comment on that. I may have to head back and write a smaller bread based review soon.” Cookie continued, looking over at Pinny and coming off the review text to ask him a question. “Oh yeah, I forgot her bag doesn’t have bread. Just sweet treats…”

“Don’t worry about that, like he said he might be back for them. Just keep reading.” Pinny urged.

“Firstly, I’d like to applaud the two ponies of Upper Crust for heeding my advice. Whilst the baked goods I was given didn’t look much different to before, looks can indeed be deceiving. The first thing I tried was a small macaroon. It looked rather innocent in nature and as standard as the next one from any other bakery, what shocked me was when I put it in my mouth. The taste was absolutely sensational, baked goods are sweet but this was on a different level. It wasn’t just sweet, the flavors danced in my mouth and pulled a tug of war between my taste buds. For a moment I was actually slightly stunned and had to stare at the remaining two thirds of the macaroon which very rapidly vanished, each bite just as good and if not better than the last. I then moved onto an innocent looking cookie, which had the same effect. The taste was indeed different as it was permeated by lovely chunky chocolate chips but I felt the same wonderful taste as I had experienced with the macaroon. It is safe to say readers that the entire contents of the bag vanished within the next five minutes and I was left a little bit of a mess as I recovered from all the food. Clearly I ate a little too fast as I noticed a bit of extra pudge in my belly, but obviously that’s to be expected for one who eats as often as me.” Cookie stopped after the last sentence.

“Seems it had an effect on him too.” Pinny said, seeing the concern on her face. “I suppose it’s good that at least he expects to be somewhat overweight in his position…” Cookie didn’t respond, she just kept reading.

“In any case, if I didn’t have so many new and exciting places to visit as part of my job I would now be making Upper Crust a regular stop for myself. I can safely say without a shadow of a doubt that they really have not only innovated, but they’ve taken that innovation and then given it an extra pinch of sugar. Please give them a visit at your earliest convenience and if you run into a pony called Lunar Eclipse there give her a thank you for championing this new and exciting bakery. Oh and don’t forget to thank the bakers themselves, it is them after all that put their hearts and souls into this food. I am happy to write that Upper Crust gets five out of five stars.” Cookie finished, putting the paper down and staring at Pinny for a moment to try to take in all the writing on the page.

“Well, talk about a glowing review. I did wonder why the line was longer today than normal.” Pinny said, peering out towards the front of the store. “In fact I can’t actually see the end, Clipsy still seems to be at the front though.” he said with a smile. “I swear that mare makes sure she gets there first every day.” he carried on, not noticing that Cookie was getting more and more flustered as she sat there digesting the words.

“This is a disaster!” she suddenly yelled out, almost knocking the paper off the counter top and making Pinny jump, which he hardly ever did.

“What!? What on Equestria are you talking about. A disaster!? This is exactly what we wanted!? We wanted a great review and we’ve got it right there in black and white!” he replied utterly exasperated. “For once, I’m confused.”

“No, no - not a disaster, I mean just today. Today will be a disaster if we don’t get our flanks in gear!” Cookie carried on, making her way to the preparation area and starting to hastily cram together dough for extra cookies. “You just said it yourself! The line is longer than usual! We’re going to run out of everything and everypony will be mad!” Cookie said, she felt a hoof stop her as Pinny in his usual role of her personal calmer stopped her from rushing into baking a batch of hastily put together and terrible treats.

“Dear, be calm. Yes. We are going to run out, but that is okay. All those ponies out there are standing in the same line. They’ll see we’re swamped, they can either wait until we bake up a fresh batch of whatever it is they want or come back tomorrow when we’re more prepared. It is very easy in this situation to say we were unprepared for getting such a glowing review so soon after the first one. They will understand, and if they don’t, that’s why I am here.” he said, watching as the mare stopped her small shakes and shudders and came to a more calm posture, giving him a hug.

“You’re right...sorry for uh, doing what I usually do.” she said.

“Don’t mention it, for now let’s just open. Will you fetch Clipsy’s bag for her? She’ll want it as per usual.”

“Of course…” Cookie said, going to get the bag of pre-prepared goodies. She hadn’t been expecting the second review to be so good, of course she had hoped it would be but there was always that doubting feeling it just wouldn’t be. But now they had and they had to face a very, very busy day indeed. She’d open the doors and her and Pinny would tackle it head on, together.