“For me, food and cuisine is all about memories. And my best memory is the smell of naan from my grandmotherโs kitchen, where I was born and raised,” says Martine Bauer, who along with Maxime Hoerth and Jonathan Bauer โthe same trio behind Toronto’s lauded French restaurant Pompette โ recently opened Bakery Pompette in Little Italy. “Itโs very important to meย to share this memory with my kids, so my favourite thing to bake is everything that reminds me of where I come from.”
Bauer hails from Mauritius, then found herself in Paris before settling in Toronto. “Maxime is the best bartender, Jonathan the best sommelier and I myself worked for the Prime Minister of France,” Bauer says. “We all decided to move to Toronto to open our own business: Restaurant Pompette three years ago, Bar Pompette two years ago and now Bakery Pompette.โ
Bakery Pompette is the only establishment of the three the group has opened while not dealing with pandemic-related closures and regulations, and each spot is tucked mere steps from each other at the College Street and Bathurst Street intersection. After the instant success of the restaurant and Bar Pompette, the bakery, according to Bauer, felt like a natural progression.
“The restaurant and the bar were successful at the very beginning,” she says. “We did not want to expand nor to do a franchise, but we always wanted to do something else that relates to our background so we decided to open a bakery, close to the restaurant and the bar.โ
Inside the bakery, Martine Bauer says visitors can expect freshly-baked sourdough bread and baguettes, alongside savoury danishes such as the tarte flambรฉe, a sort of flatbread originally from Jonathanโs and Maximeโs French hometown. She also notes that seasonal specials will also occasionally make an appearance.
Bakery Pompette is located at 655 College Street and is open from Thursdays to Sundays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.