# When did you first hear of croissants?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-hear-of-croissants/588064>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 6, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-hear-of-croissants/588064 "2011-07-06T17:50:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-hear-of-croissants/588064/61 "2011-07-09T23:18:55Z")

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_Crescent Roll_, in the US, goes back to the late 1800s, although they were in no way what we think of as a classic French _croissant_ today.

_Croissants_ of the classic French style were available in high-end hotels and some restaurants in the US as early as the 1940s. A jamoke like me never saw or heard of such a thing until the late 1970s/early 80s.

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**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-hear-of-croissants/588064/62 "2011-07-10T22:19:44Z")

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> [@Spoke](#):
>
> Not even as good as a Costco croissant. In my memory, the Burger King croissants started out being pretty decent (for fast food, anyway) but at some point they went cheap, and the “croissant” part of the sandwich became, like I said, a [slightly modified hamburger bun](http://smartcanucks.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/croissan27wichegg_cheese2.jpg).
> 
> Now it could be that my memory is playing tricks and it has been the same horrible bun all along.

No, this is what I was going to say before I saw you’d beaten me to it. As a kid, the Croissan’wich was my favorite fast food breakfast item. I’m pretty sure it was made with lousy American-style croissants like what **beatato** describes, but at least it was something that might legitimately be sold on it’s own as a croissant without falling afoul of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act. What they use now is indeed a vaguely croissant-shaped hamburger bun.

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**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-first-hear-of-croissants/588064/63 "2011-07-10T22:54:41Z")

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I do not recall my first encounter with a croissant, but it was probably in the late 70s when they turned up on the bread tray at breakfast in the dining hall of my college.

I do not recall the first time I heard of or ate a Croissanwich, but the inner trashy part of me still enjoys one every couple of years.

I _ **DO** _ recall the first time I had pain au chocolat which was during my first trip to Paris in 2002. What the hell? Where had this heavenly combo of buttery flakiness and sweet dark chocolate been all my life? (France, I guess.) Not only could I get them at little patisseries, they were even sold at kiosks in the Metro station! I gorged on them. Those and Nutella crepes. And Croque Madame sandwiches. Maybe that’s the French version of inner trashiness . . .

I have never, ever liked crescent rolls, even before I discovered croissants.

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