Pascal Rigo at Boulangerie Bay Bread on Pine Street.
IT BEGAN in a former dry cleaners on Pine Street in 1999. “I just have this thing about bread,” said Pascal Rigo, the Frenchman realizing his dream by launching his own boulangerie and living upstairs above the shop. “The flavor, the smell, the texture. I can’t tell you why. It wasn’t as if I came from a long line of bakers. I was just fixated on bread. And not only bread. I was crazy about the bakery, too.”
Yesterday Rigo and his investors sold the company and its 19 La Boulange cafes to Starbucks for $100 million. During the next year, La Boulange products will be added to every Starbucks pastry case in America, Rigo says. And the La Boulange brand will expand to 200 to 400 units nationwide within the next four to five years.
Inside Scoop: Starbucks buys La Boulange
EARLIER: “I just have this thing about bread“
Filed under: Food, Drink & Lodging, Locals