Crema House is an Italian caffè, and it has also been a Persian bakery the whole time. Barbari out of our own oven, shirini by the kilogram, ajil by weight, saffron bastani made here, and tea brought the way it should be. This is where to find it.
Barbari is the long Persian flatbread with finger-drawn furrows down its length and a toasted sesame crust. We bake it here in the Bake House rather than buying it in, which is why it is worth asking what time it comes out. Eaten warm with feta, walnuts and tea, it is breakfast; torn over a bowl at lunch, it is everything else.
Latifeh is the Persian cream pastry: two soft sponge layers with whipped cream between them, not sweet so much as light. Beside it on the tray are nan-e khameei, the choux cream puffs that belong on a Persian tea table, and the napoleon finished with chopped pistachio or dried rose petals. They are made in the same kitchen, on the same morning, as the Italian pasticceria next to them.
The cookie counter is Persian first: rice flour cookies, chickpea cookies that collapse on the tongue, walnut, jam, marble, kolompeh with its date filling. Buy them by the kilogram from the tray, or in a box of six or twelve when you are visiting somebody. At Norouz the tray changes and the seasonal boxes come back.
Saffron bastani is the one people come for: golden, scented with rosewater, made here rather than bought in. Pistachio and pomegranate sit beside it, and beside those the Italian flavours, in the same case. Take it as a scoop, in a cone, or packed cold in a 150 g, 250 g or one kilogram tub to carry home.
Ajil is the mixed bowl set beside tea for guests, and the counter is built for it: pistachios roasted in the shell, salted almonds and cashews, walnuts, tokhmeh kadoo and tokhmeh aftabgardan, watermelon seeds, white mulberries, jumbo black raisins. Salted or sweet, by weight, mixed how you want it.
A pot for four: black tea blended with second-flush Darjeeling, brought with sugar cubes on the side rather than milk. There is a Persian latte on the bar, and Ab Havij Bastani, the carrot juice float with a scoop of ice cream in it, which is the drink people are most surprised to find here.
The Persian items are spread through the menu rather than kept in one corner, because that is how they are eaten. If you are after something you do not see, ask at the counter on Clyde Avenue: a good deal of what we make is seasonal, and Norouz brings its own list.