I had a doubt about this one when I saw its name. Because Bakery Nouveau doesn’t mean anything in French (and in English, neither). In French, "boulangerie" is a feminine noun, so the adjective after should have been “nouvelle” and not “nouveau”, which is the masculine for “new.” No French person could have made such a mistake. I know it is hard for you to find out when it’s a masculine noun and when it is a feminine one, especially since there is no rule concerning this.

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But when French is your mother tongue, you just know. The name of this bakery had clearly not been designed by a French person.

As I was searching for the French guy behind all this, an employee gave me the answer: There is no French baker here. It’s just “French-inspired.” The inspiration may have lost its source then. I nearly fainted when I saw a peanut butter cookie. That would be an abomination in a French bakery.

In fact, Bakery Nouveau succeeds by moving away from mainstream bakeries. Right after entering the shop, you may have a look on the different praising articles about how wonderful this bakery is and how much its founder, William Leaman, changed the world of baking. Indeed, I had never seen croissants with these shapes. But I was upset about the mix of all those pastries with different origins: American scones, Danish apples, and French pain au chocolat on the same row. Uncommon, unusual. It is nouveau, ça c’est sûr.

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It is this sense of change and innovation that was rewarded five years ago when Leaman won la Coupe du monde de la boulangerie. He may have deserved this, even if I preferred the croissant from Le Fournil. But fame and glory may have given him delusions of grandeur. Eating here is expensive. You’ll have to pay $3,50 for a baguette and $2,25 for a croissant. Usually, when you can’t finish your bread, you give the rest to the pigeons. Here, you’d better swallow it all even if you’re no more hungry. Furthermore, the place is a bit dark. Yeah, I may be trying to find this place more drawbacks than it has because I’m frustrated since Leaman won the Coupe du monde while the French team was only second. That was so unfair.

I think that Bakery Nouveau deserves a B-.

Good points:
• The food is good.
• They dare create new things you’ve never seen before.

Bad points:
• They’re not French, and that’s the whole point.