La Fournette Bakery and Cafe

A few days ago, in the Openings & Closings thread there was this note:

Cinnamon Girl wrote:La Fournette Bakery has opened at 1547 North Wells Street in Old Town. The gang at the French Pastry School is involved, so this should be one of the best bakeries in the city. The actual owner, Pierre Zimmermann (along with his wife) is a fourth generation baker who won the World Cup of Baking as a member of France’s gold medal team at the 1996 Coupe du Monde de laBoulangerie and coached France’s 2008 World Cup of Baking championship team. They serve all sorts of wonderful soups, sandwiches and salads as well.

This afternoon, some friends who spend part of each year in Paris suggested a late lunch at La Fournette and it was lovely. The space has been so well designed - simple, fresh, clean looks with the gorgeous bakery items in the long glass cases allowed to dominate the visuals. There's a row on simple wood tables and benches and a varied menu for lunch and dinner. It was a pleasure just to walk in with the scent of good bakery in the air and a happy "Bonjour" to greet us.

My friends shared Rillette Pate Sandwich - homemade rillette on house baked baguette - and a large bowl of Provencal Gazpacho. I had a small bowl of the Gazpacho and a slice of the Quiche de jour (bacon and ham) and side salad. We followed that with a chocolate croissant, a beignet and a piece of "Uncle Hansi" cake (my choice - almond and hazlenut flour, dried plums and a sable crust. They also have genuinely good house brewed black iced tea.

The whole experience was really wonderful with seriously good food - the Gazpacho was wonderfully garlicy, the quiche quite tasty and the salad simple with perfect classic vinaigrette. Each item was classic, delicious, done just right and it was a friendly spot to sit and chat for a bit - a very welcome new addition to our neighborhood. The menu is nicely diverse - and I do want to try their baguette with homemade jams platter soon! I expect to return very very often and my friends were very pleased as well which takes a lot given their love of their time in Paris.

La Fournette
1547 N Wells St
Chicago
312-624-9430

M-TH 6am - 7pm, F-Sat 6am - 11pm, Sun 7am - 6pm
http://www.lafournette.com

I don't doubt that there's a lot of talent at La Fournette, but maybe they're still getting used to the space because my first visit was a bit of a mixed bag. Very friendly staff is certainly a positive and worth noting. Also, in addition to breads (I noticed croissants, brioche, baguettes, country bread, olive bread, and more) they offer salads, soups, sandwiches, and some pastries, and quite a varied menu.

I had a Black Forest ham sandwich and it was really delicious, but it was premade so the French bread on which it was served did not have the exact texture desired. If served on a crisp French bread roll, it would have been great.

They apparently make their own croissants from scratch, but the one I tried yesterday was not quite up to par - really no crispness on the outside, as if it had been covered when warm and was affected by moisture, and really not much layering inside.

But the pistachio macaron I had for dessert was outstanding - glistening shell, the exact texture a macaron should have (crispness yielding to chew) and a not too sweet pistachio filling that tasted like pistachio, rather than the usual marzipan or almond flavoring.

I'll probably return after giving them a bit more time to settle in and see how they're faring. Although I'm not quite sure I'll be able to stay away too long - they had a number of macaron flavors I'd like to try.

I stopped off there last week to get several baked items to go: a small chocolate-almond financier, a streusel brioche, and something called a kouglof which seemed a lot like a small brioche to me. I thought all were okay; nothing really blew me away though.

One thing I noticed is that - correct me if I'm wrong - I didn't see any refrigerated pastries. No eclairs, milles feuilles (napoleons), entremets (mousse cakes), pots de creme, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but when I hear the word "pastries", I expect at least something along those lines.

"Pastries" doesn't appear anywhere in the bakery's name, nor anywhere on their website. Their cornerstone is bread.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to stopping by some time this week. I took a one week class taught by Chef Zimmermann last month, and he was obviously excited about opening La Fournette. He was a fantastic instructor, and clearly very passionate about baking.

Had a really nice lite lunch here today. Split a ham and cheese on a crusty baguette. Although premade the texture of the bread was wonderful, not compromised in the least (this was @ noon straight up- can't say what it would be like after a few hrs of refrigerated deli case). The sandwich w/thin sliced cornichon and pickled onion had the "perfect modulation" in the words of my dining partner. Also shared a nice salad w/cous cous, herbs and croutons. A bit mild but nice (could have used a touch more acid). Lots of nice looking bread goods lining the wall and took home a baugette for later. Looking fwd to trying more soon.

As good as I wanted it to be and better than expected.

Just missed you - we were there at 1ish and I also had the Ham and cheese baguette but with a bowl of gazpacho. The soup was as good as the first time and the sandwich was delicious - esp that extra crunch and taste of cornichon. I'm normally completely against pre-made but this was perfect.

Service was a bit confused but friendly and aiming to please.

I returned to La Fournette to pick up some breads and macarons (and had a croissant there).

With respect to the breads, I thought the olive fougasse was terrific. It had a great crust, was loaded with olives, and probably as good an olive bread as I've tried. I was also very impressed with the baguette - great crust and flavor. It's unfortunately tough to find a true baguette in this city, one with a great crust. I have always loved F&O's baguette, but I haven't been there in ages. And what Whole Foods passes off as a baguette is a disgrace. As for the croissant, it was better than the first time I visited and quite good, but not great. It could be flakier and show more layering. If you want a better croissant, I recommend Hendrickx.

As for the macarons, I purchased six and I thought they were very good, but not as good as the pistachio I tried there on my first visit. Texture was pretty impressive, but I did not love the fillings. In particular, I thought the mango/passionfruit was too sweet, and one was kind of bland (I think vanilla). Overall, I was more impressed with the macarons from Pierrot Gourmet.

I'll definitely return to La Fournette, at least for the breads. The olive fougasse and baguette were excellent and some of the best bread I've had in a long time.

I was just there to pick up another of their perfect baguettes and tried the almond croissant. In a word, delicious.

...I'll be brief and say I cannot even fathom how this place gets good praise. Dry croissants and a sweet/sticky paste filling the almond option, flavorless kouglof, and fair but not memorable macarons. We sampled ~8 items during our visit and only the hazelnut beignet was memorable. Very disappointing - especially compared to Hendrickx the day prior.

uhockey wrote:...I'll be brief and say I cannot even fathom how this place gets good praise. Dry croissants and a sweet/sticky paste filling the almond option, flavorless kouglof, and fair but not memorable macarons. We sampled ~8 items during our visit and only the hazelnut beignet was memorable. Very disappointing - especially compared to Hendrickx the day prior.

With respect to the croissants and macarons, I'll note that I've made three visits and consistency has been a major issue, although I'm becoming certain I'll never be a big fan of their croissants. Breads on my last two visits were outstanding, however - doesn't sounds like you tried those (other than the croissant)?

I did not try the breads, though they did look good.

La Fournette Bakery & Cafe in Old Town soon will have a sister restaurant with the same name in Lincoln Park.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... ncoln-park

For those of you not aware, the La Fournette location on Clark Street just north of Fullerton closed earlier this year. The Wells Street location is still open.

Well, La Fournette has never been on my radar for baked goods (likely because it's a bit too far east to be convenient), but they are now selling some of their bread at the new Whole Foods on Ashland. I picked up a sourdough miche last week and the quality was excellent. It's among the best loaves I've had in the city.

Frankly, we have a number of options for top tier bread now that did not exist in, say, 2010. I consider this to be a very good development.