Broadway Baker, the extremely popular pastry store on Wilshire Blvd is set to close this Saturday, April 13 at 1pm. However, it’s going to be replaced with a brand new bakery that will “focus on French and Mexican inspired pastries.”
The talented chefs behind Broadway Baker, Jim Orsorno and his partner Tom Mueller, have decided to retire, but two more incredibly talented bakers, Clémence de Lutz (co-owner of The Gourmandise School) and her partner, Tony Hernandez (Bread Lounge, Friends & Family) are taking over the space at 1209 Wilshire Blvd.
The new establishment, called Petit Grain Boulangerie, is set to debut in just two and a half weeks, on Wednesday, May 1.
The name Broadway Baker came from “the colliding of my two favorite worlds, baking and Broadway,” Orsorno said. The concept originated in the upper east side of Manhattan at 115th St and Park Ave. While Orsorno was singing and dancing on Broadway, he used to bake cookies, bread and cake for opening night celebrations and dreamed of baking full-time.
“[We used] an incubator kitchen there and then baked overnight. And we had a great delivery service that came in the morning and delivered to Midtown to all the firms, law firms, financial firms, all the theaters,” he said.
The two moved out to the West Coast in 2015 and worked in commercial kitchens. “Our salted caramel brownie was featured in Oprah’s magazine,” Orsorno beams. They began looking for a space of their own and in 2019 they secured the 900-square-foot Wilshire location and opened 11 months later. And six weeks after that, the pandemic began. But they endured.
“The support has been absolutely amazing and we’re just so thankful and grateful. And so as it turns out, we were nine years in New York and nine years here,” laughs Orsorno.
Osorno said the bakery’s top-selling sweet is grandma’s mix-up bars, which is based on a recipe his Grandma used to make. They’re made with bittersweet chocolate chunks, coconut and crushed pecans drizzled with sweet cream atop a homemade graham cracker crust.
But any chef worth their toque is looking to broaden their talents and not long after Orsorno and Mueller arrived in Southern California they tried some of the classes at The Gourmandise School in Santa Monica Place. And that’s how they met De Lutz.
“A couple of months ago he (Orsorno) called me and was like, ‘I’m retiring. Are you interested in taking this space over?’ and my boyfriend (Hernandez) had been looking for a space for a really long time. So here we are,” De Lutz said.
De Lutz was born in Paris and quickly developed a palate for all things flaky, buttery, sweet and chocolatey. At age eight, she moved with her family to Washington, DC, where she spent a year perfecting her croquembouche and chocolate chip cookies. After years of baking, she took a break and went off to Syracuse to study film and anthropology. She later moved to Los Angeles where she was encouraged to start a dessert company. Gourmandise was born out of a kitchen in Venice and The Gourmandise School grew out of a passion for teaching the company’s favorite recipes. Over a decade — and many satellite kitchen classrooms later —she opened The Gourmandise School in Santa Monica.
She says that they’re going to keep some of Orsorno and Mueller’s most popular items. “We’re keeping those because we know customers will be upset if they can’t get the blueberry scones or the granola,” De Lutz said, adding, “You’ll smell some really amazing things coming from here in the next two weeks, ‘cause this will be our R&D time.”
Petit Grain Boulangerie will offer laminated pastries, including croissants, pain au chocolate and Danishes, plus pies, cookies, quiches, sandwiches and pan loaves. There are even plans to offer sourdough-style bread and New York-style pizzas. Opening hours are planned to be Wednesday through Sundays, from 7:30am to 4 o’clock in the afternoon.