If Kitchen 324 were in Paris, it would be a patisserie. Sweet-shop bakeries in the City of Lights often offer some of the best deals on breakfast, lunch, and even supper at a counter. (Quiche and salad can cost less than a drink at an outdoor cafe.) Kitchen 324, of course, is emphatically American. What else could you call the fried green tomato Benedict shown above? (Well, you could call it Southern, we suppose.)

The snazzy room in the classic 1923 limestone and brick Braniff building in downtown OKC has the bright white and stainless look that practically screams “clean!” (Yes, it was the headquarters of Braniff Airways, the airline that once linked the Midwest and Southwest to Latin America.) Its central location makes it popular for breakfast meetings, take-out coffee, and office worker lunches. We can’t speak to lunch or dinner, but we did grab breakfast here twice and were very impressed both times.

Sweet starts to the day

The pastry kitchen starts around 4 a.m. and morning pastries are big and luscious. The scones echo the biscuits of the savory menu, and there are always a few muffins. But Kitchen 324’s real forte is yeast-raised pastry. The house specialty is the “Joenut,” which we thought was a reference to pastry to go with coffee. (Don’t blame us—we hail from the homeland of Dunkin’ Donuts.) But we were told it was named after a pastry cook named Joe.

In general, the Joenut is a large raised bun cooked in hot fat like any yeast donut. The kitchen then pumps it full of some variety of cream or jelly, ladles a generous amount of glaze or ganache over the top, and decorates with anything from a sprig of mint or a candied slice of fruit to crumbled bacon. The Maple Bacon Joenut (below) is filled with custard, glazed with maple, and studded with bacon. We think it’s a true American original. Since this is OKC instead of NYC, it blessedly arrives without a calorie count.

Kitchen 324 (324 N. Robinson St., Oklahoma City; 405-763-5911; kitchen324.com) is open daily from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.