Squarz Bakery & Cafe

Here is a question for you. What happens when a guy comes home from the Peace Corps with two college degrees, a passport full of stamps and a strange love for tiny meat pies? You get Squarz. But hold that thought, because we will come back to the founder later.

First, the room. This is one of those rare cafes where you can settle in for three hours and never feel like you are overstaying. The ceilings are high. The walls are covered in art. There are tables, there are cozy booths and there is plenty of sofa seating. The whole place gives you room to breathe which is not common.

The signature move here is the square croissant. Squarz bakes them in house alongside savory mini pies and they take those square croissants and use them as sandwich bread. Yes, the croissant is the bread. More on why that matters in a second.

I ordered the Avocado Egg and Parmesan sandwich. It arrived beautifully presented inside one of those square croissants, fresh and hot. Creamy avocado meets a warm fried egg. Sharp parmesan brings a salty bite and a subtle crunch. Every bite balances rich texture and clean flavor all held together by a flaky and buttery square croissant. This thing is excellent. We also grabbed the Chicken Chipotle. Tender chicken, bold chipotle sauce and that same buttery croissant doing the heavy lifting. Also excellent.

Now the coffee. Squarz runs a full espresso bar with smoothies and other fun drinks. They recently switched beans from Cartel to Prism Coffee Lab, pulling the Uplift Blend, a medium-dark mix of Central and South American coffees. They also adjust shot counts by cup size to keep things balanced which is a nice touch. I had a small latte. It was fine. Balanced, a little thin and the promised milk chocolate and plum notes did not show up for me. It tasted like a typical perfectly drinkable latte and not much more. The Honey Lavender Latte was the better pour. Sweet from the honey, soft floral lavender, soothing aroma, though the coffee itself stays in the background. Fair warning for purists. The syrups here are commercial (I call them chemistry syrups), there is no house made stuff and there is no drip coffee at all. The espresso machine, on the other hand, is a treat. It is an Italian made Nuova Simonelli Prontobar semi-automatic.

So back to that founder. Steven Gerner finished the Peace Corps at 22 with two degrees and a head full of travel through South America, South Africa, and New Zealand. Somewhere along the way he fell for the little meat pies, the ones he thinks are fun and a bit silly. He started small at the Gilbert farmers market, expanded to Mesa and kept growing. He even customizes pastries for the moment, like a red croissant made to support local high school teachers. That playful and "keep it fun" spirit is all over this place.

Squarz is a comfy, art filled Scottsdale hang where the croissant is the main character and honestly, that is reason enough to go.