Last weekend, New Orleans baker Kate Heller opened the doors to a new bakery cafe right across the street from where they got her start selling bread from the tailgate of her station wagon.
Staff photo by Ian McNulty - Leo's Bread is a bakery cafe along Bayou Road 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 the corner of N. Dorgenois and Bell streets, 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.
Staff photo by Ian McNulty - Leo's Bread is a bakery cafe along Bayou Road in New Orleans.
“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.
When Pagoda Café reopened last week, Brandon Duncan got his old job back and also a chance to become a restaurant owner.
The new location is across the street from Pagoda Café, which hosted early pop-ups for Leo’s Bread. Pagoda Café reopened earlier this year, and is working toward a new, worker-owned co-op business model.
Slices of semolina loaf from Leo's Bread, a bakery in New Orleans.
From its start in 2014, Leo’s Bread began supplying small neighborhood restaurants, including the nearby 1000 Figs. Soon, Heller partnered with the proprietors of 1000 Figs to open Echo's, an excellent wood-fire pizzeria in Mid-City. In 2019, they closed and sold the business, which became a second location of Pizza Domenica.
Staff photo by Ian McNulty - A lox sandwich on sesame bagel at Leo's Bread, a bakery cafe in New Orleans.
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.”
2438 Bell St.
Wed.-Sun., 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
Crescent City Farmers Market, 200 Broadway, Tuesdays, 8 a.m. -noon
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