People queuing out of the door at popular bakery
AS you head towards the new La Chouquette bakery in Poynton, the smell of assorted freshly baked goods will hit you before you even cross the road to step foot inside.
Since 2020, couple Mairead Deignan and Florent Verove have been baking delicious breads, pastries and cakes from their base in Didsbury on Wilmslow Road to the delight of residents and those who have travelled far just for a bite of brioche.
Three years exactly to the day, and just months after being named the best Manchester bakery at the England’s Business Awards, the pair have now opened their second base.
And before the new bakery even opened its doors at 7am on Tuesday morning (December 5) for its first day, there were queues outside with people waiting to get their hands on the likes of sourdough loaves, cakes, quiches, and their now famous almond croissants. And the queues never stopped throughout the day.
Amongst those to pop in on opening day was one local resident who told staff she had often travelled all the way up to the Didsbury bakery to get her fill of baked goods, including her favourite Bakewell tarts. She now said she only has to walk round the corner to be able to get her order in.
For anyone who has visited their original store, visitors to the Poynton store on the corner of Clumber Road will be pleased to know it offers everything it is known for and then some. The bread is still made in Didsbury, but pretty much everything else is made in store and on the day.
“It was by chance that we’ve ended up in Poynton really,” Mairead tells the Express.
“We were just always looking for somewhere to open a second store and this just came about.
“We’ve had a really positive reaction from people here - they’ve been sending us messages on social media welcoming us to the village and it’s just really been such a lovely response from people.”
She adds: “We really didn’t expect people to be queuing up outside when we opened at 7am. It was so dark and we couldn’t see anything, so to open the blinds and to see lines of people outside was really a big surprise for us.”
Mairead says there is no one ‘best seller’ when it comes to the products on offer at La Chouquette but the almond croissants are always a firm favourite.
Throughout the day, Mairead and her team were baking batches of croissants, cinnamon buns, and pain de chocolat.
“We sold out of our first batch of 100 pretty much within the hour,” Mairead adds. “We’ve just been loading them up and they’ve been going out within half an hour.”
Asked why she believes there is such demand for their products, Mairead says it ultimately comes down to the quality of product. “We really thrived during the pandemic and that really helped us set up our brand in Didsbury,” she explains. “We’ve got an incredible team at both sites and we have become known for the quality of our products.”
And Mairead promises, even with two stores now to look after, that the level of quality won’t be dropping. “Myself and my fiance are going to split our time between both sites and we’re not going to be neglecting anything,” she insists. We’ve got the same aesthetic - the blue inside and out - and the quality is just as good as it has ever been.”
La Chouquette’s Poynton store is on 47 Clumber Road, SK12 1NW. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 7am to 4pm.