Hazelwood gets authentic French bakery
A line formed out the door the morning La Gourmandine opened in Hazelwood last week. The lunch crowd the next day filed in steadily, from late morning into the afternoon.
Co-owner Fabien Moreau has a fingers-crossed attitude about the retail success of his third location. The other two are in Lawrenceville and Mt. Lebanon. What makes this location most significant to his business is the production capability of having 5,000 square feet.
“Before, each shop did its own production, and that made it complicated to control everything,” he said. “I wanted one place” for production and distribution. He said he has four times the production space in Hazelwood than he had in the other two kitchens.
The authentic French bakery, which Mr. Moreau owns with his wife, Lisanne, is one of Pittsburgh’s few. It always lands at or near the top of critiques with Jean-Marc Chatellier’s French Bakery in Millvale and Gaby et Jules in Squirrel Hill.
In Hazelwood, ACTION-Housing redeveloped the building, the site of the former Dimperio’s Market, which closed in 2008, and recruited La Gourmandine to fill it.
“They offered the space for production, and the city said they’d help us but wanted us to open a cafe here,” Mr. Moreau said. “We saw all the renovations here and the [promise of the] Almono site, plus Second Avenue is very busy” with potential commuter business.
As people lined up to order sandwiches, quiche, baguettes-togo and pastries, workers behind the scene were scurrying from freezer to cooler to wheeled carts that held stacks of trays filled with macarons, eclairs, shells for tarts, dough for napoleons and slabs of croissant dough.
Mr. Moreau orders French