A taste of France comes to Oakland with the opening of La Gourmandine bakery on Meyran Avenue.
French Bakery La Gourmandine Grows Into Oakland
The family-owned, Hazelwood-based bakery, featuring French breads, pastries, and other treats, originated in Lawrenceville in 2010. The other locations are in Downtown and Mt. Lebanon.
The continued expansion is about meeting demand and taking on new challenges, says owner-baker Fabien Moreau. “We want to be able to extend our brand to serve all customers and to keep growing,” he says. “As an entrepreneur, I don’t want to get bored.”
Moreau has paced his company’s growth so as not to jeopardize the quality of his products, he says, and to maintain reasonable prices.
The Oakland bakery, in a small storefront between Fifth and Forbes avenues, features a selection of croissants, viennoiserie, madeleines, tarts, chouquettes, and other sweet items, plus savory baguette sandwiches filled with cheeses and meats. While the shop caters to takeout, there’s seating for 10.
Behind the Bakery
Coffee is from Pittsburgh’s La Prima Espresso Co. Moreau and his wife, Lisanne, were born and raised in France and moved to Pittsburgh, where Lisanne has maternal roots. The couple considered opening a restaurant but realized they missed the breads and pastries they had grown up with.
So, Fabien studied for a month at Lenôtre Culinary Institute in Paris and returned to open “the sort of bakery you can find everywhere in France,” he says. “La Gourmandine is not a luxury shop.” He assembled and trained a team in bread-making and patisserie.
Items change with the seasons. Look this fall for pumpkin pie, poached apple choux, and pecan cake.
116 Meyran Avenue, Oakland
Story by Deborah Weisberg