Mile End’s Guillaume Bakery to Expand, Including a New Retail Space Up the Street | Eater Montreal

"I note that the exceedingly popular Mile End bakery Guillaume is enlarging its bread- and pastry-making facility to take over its entire existing locale at 5134 St-Laurent while moving the customer-facing retail a couple of doors up to 5170 St-Laurent; the new retail space is being designed with COVID-19 social-distancing measures so it can safely accommodate more patrons and will house a kitchen on an upper level where the bakery’s lunch and dinner offerings will be prepared. The workshop, to be known as “L’Atelier Guillaume,” will absorb the former sales counter at the current address to give workers more room to spread out while making everything from beloved buttery croissants to cheese-filled fig baguettes, and bakers will be positioned on a wide-windowed ground floor so passersby can stop and be mesmerized from the adjacent public square. Since the start of the pandemic I’ve seen a major surge in demand for their breads and baked goods, with many Montreal restaurants — including Tinc Set in Outremont and Mouton Vert in Monkland Village, as well as others off the island — acting as drop-off points, though Vaillant stresses that their priority remains the Mile End and that expanding production in the current locale is the best way to meet growing appetite without compromising quality or worker safety. Ownership has also broadened beyond founder Guillaume Vaillant and co-founder Valérianne Lamirande-Gauvin to integrate employees who are now partners, including chef baker Rémi Delpino and directors Théo Sadozai, Janis Bouchard, and Cristian Alexis Leon, and Vaillant says their visions will increasingly come to the fore. A fire that Vaillant posted about to Instagram on January 5 delayed the expansion by about two months, but he says the project is now on track for an expected opening at the end of the summer." - Valerie Silva