Lakon Paris Patisserie croissants are worth lining up for

Nearly an hour before the shop unlocks its door, you might find a 20-person line at the newly opened Lakon Paris Patisserie on Beacon Street in Brookline. Customers come hungering for brioche cinnamon rolls, coiled cardamom buns, and classic French golden brown croissants — plain or with sweet and savory fillings — and a jolt from a well-crafted coffee drink. On weekends, the bakers create specialties — croissants with creamy fillings, topped with strawberries, matcha Kit Kat bars, or coated in chocolate. Then there’s the buttery dough reimagined into cube shapes, instead of crescents, with creamy centers. Even though the bakery, a grab-and-go without seating — recently opened, Lakon’s Thai tea latte croissants and other viennoiserie, cakes, macarons, chocolate eclairs, and desserts with Asian influences are well known, for this is the bakery’s second location. Pastry chef Vichaya Kiangkaew, or Jenny, opened the first Lakon in 2020 with partner Urupong Kharuhar in Newton Highlands. Originally from Thailand, Kiangkaew studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok and Paris. Before moving to Boston, she ran a patisserie with a partner in her hometown of Lampang (Lakon is the city’s traditional name). When she arrived in Boston, Kiangkaew spent a year working at Menton restaurant, but her dream, she said, was to open her own shop one day. For her second venture in Brookline, she’s partnered with notable pastry chef Giselle Miller and pastry chef Anthony Grossi — they all worked together at Menton. Grossi, now baking in Brookline, launched the Newton patisserie with Kiangkaew and has mastered the offerings over the past few years. How do the bakeries command such a following? “Word of mouth is high that we’re giving creative and different flavors to French pastry,” Grossi said. 1410 Beacon St., Brookline, and 1169 Walnut St., Newton Highlands, lakonparispatisserie.com. Both are open Wednesday through Sunday.