Le Panier in Seattle, WA

Kristi DraKe, Owner

Origins

Our founder, Hubert Loevenbruck, was a Frenchman raised in Normandy. After he moved to the Pacific Northwest, he was importing French  cheese and meats,  and he realized there were  no baguettes to enjoy with his favorite cheeses. With a true boulangerie as his dream, he brought over seven  French bakers to develop the product line and bake in our first store  established in Portland, Oregon in 1981.  The reception from the community was wonderful and soon the dream to come to Seattle’s Pike Place Market came true. The market was growing and Hubert negotiated a spot in the Stewart House,  which hosts  retail on the street level and low-income housing above.  In 1995,  the original French  baker, Thierry Mougin, and I purchased the  bakery from its founder. I was the store’s first manager. Thierry retired in 2023.  The Market has been  our home ever since. We love to be a part of such a historic district  of Seattle.  More than 40 years later, we are still grateful for those first bold steps.

Mission

Fresh every day is our motto.  Everything  at the bakery is made on-site from scratch using traditional French baking methods. We seek high quality in every product. It’s our history and connection to our customers that make Le Panier what it is today. We feel honored by every story we hear about generations of customers coming to get their favorite pastries. We have families who make it a tradition to come by for their morning viennoiseries or the holiday selections that have become family traditions. We’ve had quite a few employees who came in as children, worked  here  as young adults and now bring in their own children. That is a treasure to our amazing team, which includes Christian Verbrugghe, our production manager; Victoria Cafferty, our lead baker; and Kate Drake, our retail manager. We love to nurture, to create and to laugh together, and we love to watch the customers enjoy good food while glancing out into the Market with all its unique activity and fun.

 Signature Products

Each of us can point to different customer favorites. Christian highlights our Croissant Beurre and Victoria adds that it’s the butter croissant that defines the quality in any French bakery. It’s tough for us to choose one signature product. We want to do everything the way it’s meant to be done without cutting corners. Kate notes that our amandine, pain au chocolat, baguettes, palmiers, and macarons come to mind as her signature products. Customers appreciate the amandine for its texture and house-made creme d’amande. Our other items are made authentically and fresh every day so these flavors and textures bring people back to France. She describes serving two businessmen, one British and the other Italian. The two men mentioned walking in feeling like they were in France again. For me, our classic boulangerie offerings continue to be the favorites. Nothing quite compares to a pain au chocolat or a fresh brioche.  Our eclair au chocolat and friand never seem to go out of style. These quintessential products have a way of transporting us to France where the traditions are much deeper than our 40 years.

We love to bring seasonal products to the cases, but we know that people love to indulge in their favorite croissants. We aim to be a place of comfort by offering those classics. But lately we’ve been doing a bit more experimentation in the pastry world with some seasonal items. We’ve created a Mango Pavlova for Mother’s  Day and fresh-flower decorated Raspberry Eclair Olympique for the Paris Olympics. We also love to introduce some of our customers to traditional French desserts like the St. Honoré, Paris-Brest and even a l’Ispahan. We love to play and these creations are just that to us.

Equipment ‘Must-Haves’

Christian mentions the oven and the sheeter, which saves so much time and energy for our bakers.  Victoria highlights the whisk. If you think back to the old days, people made it a long time without sheeters or bowl scrapers, but the whisk is still something that’s hard to live without. I love our Rondo Sheeter for laminated doughs. We can’t imagine our production schedule without its help. We also have quite a sentimental attachment to our late-70s croissant machine.  It has so many moving parts, but it rolls out a beautiful croissant at the end – almost every time.

Production Tip

According to Christian, problem  solving is key. There is always something to fix or improve, so staying in the mindset to problem  solve will help you go further. Otherwise, you are stuck with what you know. He says it doesn’t feel like work and he loves to bake, but he recommends keeping  home life separate from work life.

Victoria would simply advise people  to love what they do. It doesn’t get old that way. Even when you are stressed, there’s a level of care that helps you push through. It’s also all about the mindset of what flows the best. We have a lot to do and don’t want to push people past what’s comfortable all the time, though a little discomfort is good for growth.  We have certain  tasks that should be done  by 8 a.m. and as people work faster and get a little behind, we all step in to help out. Our goal is for everyone to finish together at the end of the day. It also gives people the chance to know a little of everything. If they’re starting out, they may start  on sandwich prep. Say they finish a bit early; then they can jump over to help sandwich the macarons. It’s all about the stepping stones.

To me, it’s essential we begin with only the purest of ingredients free of preservatives or artificial flavors. When adding a flavor, we feel it is essential to use the natural ingredient. If we want an almond flavor, it’s ground almonds.  For our passion fruit macaron,  we make our own passion fruit puree.

Future Goals

Earlier this year, we renovated our retail area. Our goal was to breathe new life into the space  but leave the essence of 40 years of bakery life. We want our customers to have the same sense of tradition and warmth they’ve enjoyed over the years. We are thriving in Pike Place Market and have enjoyed this relationship for so many years now. One might see a Le Panier Pop-Up  or two just for fun, but our essential life as a bakery is centered here in the market. We are so grateful to be in the heart of Pike Place, a community of so many locals, vendors, foodies and visitors from all over the world.

For more info, visit https://www.instagram.com/lepanierbakery

(This article appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)