The doorbell rings just after the sun goes down, but the aural cue isn’t necessary. The buttery aroma of freshly baked croissants seeping through the crack beneath the door is your first clue that a delivery from Viennoiseries After Dark has arrived.
You’re handed a box filled with warm croissants, which steam the little window at the top. Squandering the opportunity to eat a croissant while it’s still warm is a crime, so you bring a flaky corner to your mouth. Perhaps you dab a little jam on it from the miniature jar of Bonne Maman jam that accompanies the box of viennoiseries. It becomes clear why viennoiseries lovers should experience a freshly baked croissant delivered straight from the oven to their home. And it’s an experience that shouldn’t be limited to the daytime.
Atlanta college student Chloë Chadet and her mother, Christelle, founded Viennoiseries After Dark this summer to fill the void in nighttime cravings for croissants.
“The concept came from spending too much time on social media,” Christelle said. “I saw a post about late-night croissants, and I said, ‘Wait, that can be us.’”
Viennoiserie (veeay-nwaz-ree), like a croissant, danish, and brioche, isn’t quite a pastry or a bread, but rather both. A French term used to describe a hybrid category of baked goods made in the Viennese style, viennoiseries feature flaky, yeast-leavened, laminated dough loaded with eggs and butter.
Thanks to her Parisian mother, Chloë is no stranger to viennoiserie. As a dual citizen of the U.S. and France, she spends summers in Paris with family, enjoying patisseries and boulangeries throughout the city. Growing up in Atlanta, she began baking as a child, starting out small with apple turnovers.
“Then I just started learning more as I went back and forth from Paris to America,” Chloë said of her love for baking.
When she isn’t making viennoiseries from her cottage bakery operation, or attending classes, Chloë works at Crumbl Cookies and as a model, spending any free time she has bonding with dogs at the Atlanta Humane Society.
While at Louisiana State University (LSU), Chloë continued baking and began selling pastries to other students. She moved back to Atlanta in 2024, transferring from LSU to Chattahoochee Tech. This August, Chloë founded Viennoiseries After Dark, with Christelle’s support.
Chloë prefers to laminate her croissants by hand — a process that makes each batch take between two and three days to make.
Every week, the Chadets post a Square link to Viennoiseries After Dark’s Instagram stories. People can then preorder a single croissant, or boxes of four to six croissants for around $18. For $26, people can also order a whole quiche feeding up to six people. Orders arrive at set times on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, hand delivered by the Chadets.
Chloë recently added bacon gruyere quiche to the Viennoiseries After Dark menu, and will soon add madeleines. She tested the madeleines out on a few customers this month. Moist, fluffy, and with a hint of citrus, the petite, shell-like sponge cakes sometimes eclipse the croissants Chloë bakes.
Right now, the Chadets deliver to homes within a 13-mile radius of Viennoiseries After Dark’s Westside Atlanta location, including to Chamblee, Dunwoody, Decatur, Tucker, and Vinings. They hope to expand that delivery radius later this fall, using third-party delivery services like UberEats and DoorDash.
“Even though I’m here in Atlanta, I want people to experience Paris, one way or another,” Chloë said. “Everyone should experience warm croissant after hours. I feel like people deserve croissants throughout the day.”
Follow Viennoiseries After Dark on Instagram to keep up with croissant drops and menu updates.
