The aroma of fresh baked bread is mixing with the spicy smells of the Sauer’s factory on West Broad Street.
Lucille’s Bakery, a wholesale bread and cake shop, opened a retail front on North Meadow Street near Emilio’s last week. That’s a bread loaf’s toss away from the Sauer’s plant, which emits aromas of its own.
For almost five years, Lucille’s has been baking breads, cakes and other desserts for local markets and restaurants in 600 square feet at 2118 W. Cary St., but owner Gerry Fortin said it was time to take his oven elsewhere.
“We had outgrown the space,” said Fortin, 51. “It worked really well for awhile, but we were feeling the crunch.”
Fortin said he wanted the extra space for a retail component to sell desserts and other treats to locals.
“I always felt that was a direction to go in,” he said. “We didn’t have a place people could walk into.”
Lucille’s, which is named after Fortin’s mother, sells rolls and other baked breads to Willow Oaks Country Club, Sticky Rice, Station 2, Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market and Williamsburg Farmers Market.
Fortin said Lucille’s did well at the Carytown location and has grown to about 10 to 12 wholesale clients.
Besides breads, the bakery makes cakes, breakfast pastries, tarts, brownies and other desserts in the $1.50 to $7 range.
Fortin said he would continue to run the wholesale business at the new shop while focusing on growing the retail side. The new shop is rolling out a line of individual tarts, cakes and pies that are made in house daily.
“I like doing the smaller pieces,” Fortin said. “More people seem to be interested in the individual desserts.”
Lucille’s also makes wedding cakes on occasion, and Fortin said he’d fire up that piece of the business once he’s settled into his new digs.
“Before, we were limited. It wasn’t an environment to entertain brides,” he said. “I’d like to do more wedding cakes.”
Fortin has been warming the idea for a retail space for some time and went on the hunt for a location about a year ago.
He leased the 1,700-square-foot space at 719 N. Meadow St. in August. The building was formerly occupied by Mediterranean Market, which closed about eight months ago.
Fortin said he expects the move to the area will attract some new patrons.
“The student population is here, and there are a lot of businesses in the area,” he said. “It’s more accessible for people.”
The aroma of fresh baked bread is mixing with the spicy smells of the Sauer’s factory on West Broad Street.
Lucille’s Bakery, a wholesale bread and cake shop, opened a retail front on North Meadow Street near Emilio’s last week. That’s a bread loaf’s toss away from the Sauer’s plant, which emits aromas of its own.
For almost five years, Lucille’s has been baking breads, cakes and other desserts for local markets and restaurants in 600 square feet at 2118 W. Cary St., but owner Gerry Fortin said it was time to take his oven elsewhere.
“We had outgrown the space,” said Fortin, 51. “It worked really well for awhile, but we were feeling the crunch.”
Fortin said he wanted the extra space for a retail component to sell desserts and other treats to locals.
“I always felt that was a direction to go in,” he said. “We didn’t have a place people could walk into.”
Lucille’s, which is named after Fortin’s mother, sells rolls and other baked breads to Willow Oaks Country Club, Sticky Rice, Station 2, Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market and Williamsburg Farmers Market.
Fortin said Lucille’s did well at the Carytown location and has grown to about 10 to 12 wholesale clients.
Besides breads, the bakery makes cakes, breakfast pastries, tarts, brownies and other desserts in the $1.50 to $7 range.
Fortin said he would continue to run the wholesale business at the new shop while focusing on growing the retail side. The new shop is rolling out a line of individual tarts, cakes and pies that are made in house daily.
“I like doing the smaller pieces,” Fortin said. “More people seem to be interested in the individual desserts.”
Lucille’s also makes wedding cakes on occasion, and Fortin said he’d fire up that piece of the business once he’s settled into his new digs.
“Before, we were limited. It wasn’t an environment to entertain brides,” he said. “I’d like to do more wedding cakes.”
Fortin has been warming the idea for a retail space for some time and went on the hunt for a location about a year ago.
He leased the 1,700-square-foot space at 719 N. Meadow St. in August. The building was formerly occupied by Mediterranean Market, which closed about eight months ago.
Fortin said he expects the move to the area will attract some new patrons.
“The student population is here, and there are a lot of businesses in the area,” he said. “It’s more accessible for people.”
2118 W. Cary St. in not in Carytown, which is west of Boulevard and east of the RMA.