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Breads on Oak co-owner Sean O’Mahony says he is looking for a second location. PHOTO BY AUBRY EDWARDS
says, “What is happening now could be seen as offering a glimpse into what once characterized neighborhood bakeries in the city.” Proprietors of these new bakeries cite different, and sometimes personal, reasons for getting into the business. Cara Benson, a culinary school grad and pastry chef, wanted to be her own boss, so she opened the cottagesized bakery Tartine on an Uptown side street in 2010. The availability of a particular Magazine Street storefront convinced baker and farmers market vendor Lisa Barbato and her husband, chef Chris Barbato, to take the plunge
last spring and open a long-planned bake shop and cafe named Rivista. And Jose Castillo opened Norma’s Sweets Bakery in 2011 as a Mid-City expansion of the Latin American bakery his mother started 10 years ago in Kenner; Castillo says demand for their Cuban bread and Mexican pan dulce pastries has skyrocketed as the city’s Hispanic population has grown. The proliferation of these new bakeries also dovetails with the broader trend of consumer interest in transparent, small-scale and traditional food production. “A resurgence is happening,” says Solveig Tofte, a Minneapolis baker who keeps tabs on the industry nationally in her role as a board member of the Bread Bakers Guild PAGE 21
GAMBIT > BESTOFNEWORLEANS.COM > JULY 23 > 2013
on quick-serve bagels and sandwiches along with an array of pastries and breads. The year-old Breads on Oak is looking for a second location, says baker and co-owner Sean O’Mahony, and Maple Street Patisserie, originally opened in 2010, is eyeing an expansion with another retail outlet, confirms co-owner Patricia Ann Donohue. It’s adding up to a boom time for great baked goods around the city, from baguettes to bagels to cinnamon buns. It also augurs a reversal of fortunes for a once-thriving niche of the city’s culinary heritage that appeared to be on the ropes just a few years ago. Michael Mizell-Nelson, a University of New Orleans history professor and an authority on local baking traditions,
Hillary Guttman shows sweets that will be sold at this Laurel Street Bakery in Broadmoor. PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER
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