New Orleans baker Kate Heller has opened the doors to a new bakery cafe right across the street from where she got her start selling bread from the tailgate of her station wagon.
Staff photo by Ian McNulty - A lox sandwich on sesame bagel at Leo's Bread, a bakery cafe in New Orleans.
Leo's Bread, the brand she's built ever since as a farmers market vendor and restaurant supplier, now has its own home at 2438 Bell St., part of a cluster of small businesses centered around Bayou Road.
The location is a former sheet metal shop with big garage doors where she wheeled in ovens and new baking equipment and started making Leo's distinctive, rustic semolina loafs and bagels. Up front, the cafe has a counter filled with bread, pastries, sandwiches, fresh juice and coffee.
“I always wanted a neighborhood bakery, especially in the neighborhood I live in,” said Heller. “This industry is so much work, you have to like what you do. To me, a lot of that has to do with the people you meet and interact with, and that’s what a neighborhood bakery brings.”
Today, Leo’s Bread is best known as a vendor at the Crescent City Farmers Market, and it will continue its Tuesday and Thursday market appearances.
The new location is across the street from Pagoda Café, which hosted early pop-ups for Leo’s Bread.
From its start in 2014, Leo’s Bread began supplying small neighborhood restaurants, including the nearby 1000 Figs.
Heller had been planning this new storefront for Leo’s Bread before the pandemic. After postponing its development through the intervening months, she decided it was time to move forward. Leo’s Bread has reached the point where it needs its own dedicated space, she explained.
“We’ll be able to expand everything we’re doing now,” Heller said. “More types of croissants, different types of bagels, more sandwiches. It’s exciting.”
Leo’s Bread is open Wed.-Sun., 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Magasin to add Mon Chay
The Vietnamese restaurant Magasin in Uptown New Orleans is part of a stretch of local restaurants on Magazine Street.
The Uptown Vietnamese restaurant Magasin (4201 Magazine St., 504-896-7611) will soon be joined by a second restaurant under the same roof, one dedicated to vegetarian Vietnamese cooking.
This new concept is called Mon Chay, and it will serve a menu of soups, noodle bowls, banh mi and other dishes drawn from the vegetarian branch of Vietnamese cuisine.
“There’s just vast potential for this in Vietnamese food, and we want to show people more of it,” said proprietor Kim Nguyen.
Mon Chay is now taking shape in the back of Magasin’s building. It will be an outdoor cafe, with a takeout-style window for service and seating on an open-air patio facing Milan Street.
The simplicity of the setting is meant to sync with the lighter flavors and vegetarian approach, Nguyen said. She is working with a monk from a local Buddhist temple to oversee Mon Chay’s menu.
It’s been nearly a decade since Nguyen first opened Magasin, converting a one-time corner grocery into a cafe with contemporary style and some modern twists on the traditional Vietnamese noodle shop standards. She also runs a second location called Magasin Kitchen in the South Market District development downtown.
“So many of our customers are much more familiar now with Vietnamese food than when we started, I think they want to explore more,” she said.
The new restaurant is slated to open by July.
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May 12, 2021 at 04:00PM
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Bites in Brief: Leo's Bread brings the bagels, Mon Chay plans vegetarian Vietnamese - NOLA.com
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