Dine & Doodle: Cannelle Patisserie (Keego Harbor, Michigan)

You know how it goes when someone in the car suggests, "Let's stop somewhere for dessert!" On the way home from dinner, we drove past Cannelle in Keego Harbor, and the kids immediately asked if we could get something sweet. I’ve been to their other locations before, but this one—tucked inside a green building that looks like a storybook farmhouse—is completely charming.

Inside, the smell hits you first: butter, sugar, something warm and flaky. And the black-and-white checkered floor? Adorable. If I had painted the interior, you’d swear I made it up.

Cannelle is a French patisserie with countertops full of macarons, eclairs, pain au chocolat—the kinds of things that instantly send me back to my college sketchbook days wandering through Europe. This time, though, something else pulled me in: the apple croissant.

It smelled like fall and sugar and something a little fancier than your average bakery. And when I took a bite? It was like apple pie met a flaky French pastry and fell in love. Nothing like store-bought, just rich and real and golden. Like someone’s actual French grandfather made it by hand in the back.

Of course, I had to paint it.

Watch the sketch come to life in the video above and follow @JennyPaintsByHand on your favorite social channel to see where I Dine & Doodle next!

Got a favorite metro Detroit spot serving something so tasty it deserves to be illustrated? Comment below--I'm always looking for my next bite to paint!