French Bakery La Gourmandine to open new Oakland location

Students will soon be able to enjoy a taste of France in Oakland, Pennsylvania.

La Gourmandine, a local French bakery, is opening a new location on Meyran Avenue, where Sree’s Foods previously operated. The bakery has multiple locations across the Pittsburgh area in Lawrenceville, Hazelwood, Downtown and Mt. Lebanon. According to owner Fabien Moreau, the location is expected to open around mid-May.

Throughout the process of renovating the new space, Moreau said they’ve had to push back the opening date while dealing with permits and inspections. If everything goes as planned, Moreau said he hopes to open after Mother’s Day.

“It’s a lot of work to get ready for it — the construction, [getting] the kitchen ready, the front of the house ready … It’s always fun to open a new thing until it’s too much work and it’s not fun anymore,” Moreau said.

In 2006, Moreau moved from France to Pittsburgh. He began working in the food industry in Pittsburgh when he realized there was a lack of French restaurants and bakeries in the city. After returning to France for training, Moreau and his wife, Claudia, opened up La Gourmandine’s first location in Lawrenceville in 2010 and have since expanded. 

Like with other storefronts, La Gourmandine will deliver goods from the Hazelwood location, where they do most of their baking. Select items like almond croissants and brioche bostock will be made on-site.

Moreau said he loves to see people “sit down, have a coffee, chill and enjoy the food,” which he looks forward to seeing people do at the Oakland location.

“I really enjoy when people enjoy what we are doing for work — the food, the service, the atmosphere, everything,” Moreau said.

While all the La Gourmandine storefronts are somewhat different, the Oakland location will not have as much space, meaning less storage and room for coolers. Because of this issue, Moreau said the menu will likely focus more on individual pastries with a limited range of cakes.

Emily Tiberi, front-of-house and human resources manager, highlighted the different offerings of each location — downtown has an espresso bar and lots of seating, and Lawrenceville is smaller with outdoor seating and drip coffee only. For Oakland’s location, Tiberi said there will be an espresso bar and some seating, both inside and outside on Meyran.

“It will be like a cross between all of our locations,” Tiberi said. “It will have that sort of vibe of the Downtown store, but obviously all the same baked goods you find in the rest of the stores.”

Tiberi said she will be hiring new employees and working at the Oakland location after it first opens to make sure everything “runs smoothly.” Tiberi also said she is excited to be a part of the Oakland community and “mingle with the neighborhood.”

“I think that the Oakland Community is really fun, and it’s got a ton of energy and a great vibe,” Tiberi said. “I think that the people who come into that store will be super fun to talk to and meet — especially some of the college students. They have tons of energy. They’re always really interesting.”

When they open, Moreau said he hopes people will be happy with the service. However, he asks that future customers give them “a little bit of time to make sure [they] are well organized” and have enough food.

“If the beginning is bumpy, it’s normal. It’s always bumpy,” Moreau said. “And after a couple of months, I think we’ll be well organized. We’ll know exactly what the customer wants and everything, but I hope people really enjoy it.”

Ryan Heraty, a sophomore civil engineering major, likes the idea of a bakery opening up. He believes students would like having it around here and that it could provide more options for students.

“Obviously, Forbes has a lot of chicken places, and there’s a lot of fried food,” Heraty said. “So I think [the bakery opening] is really great, especially because we’ve had the same sort of establishments for a long time.”

Nathanail Sexton, a senior industrial engineering major, said he noticed that there are not any other bakeries in Oakland beyond the baked goods offered in coffee shops. He looks forward to having a local business move onto Forbes and the smell of baked goods in the air.

“It’s good to see there’s not a chain store opening up there,” Sexton said. “It’s good to see the local places too, because they are typically higher quality.”