A Fresh Start

Boudin Bakery's new design pairs a from-scratch bakery with a warm, inviting dining room.

Chain Leader

Lisa Bertagnoli

Customers entering the new Boudin SF bakery-restaurant in Costa Mesa, Calif., can't help but notice the abundant display of crusty, brown sourdough loaves and, off to the side, a gleaming white display bakery separated from the ordering area by a glass wall.

This is no bake-off bakery: It's the real deal, says Jeff Drake, chief operating officer at San Francisco-based Boudin Bakery & Café. "Flour, water and sourdough starter," Drake says, noting that fresh sourdough starter is shipped to Costa Mesa from San Francisco every three or four weeks.

The 500-square-foot bakery is a spot of white in the warm, inviting space, whose walnut-finish floors, tabletops and palette of deep red, gold and navy are meant to evoke a San Francisco of years past. Black-and-white penny tile covers the floor of the entryway and order area. Booths are upholstered in a deep-red fabric, and banquettes, with a thick gold, red and navy stripe. Walls are painted a buttery yellow called sourdough, topped with walnut-finished crown molding. Black-and-white photos of builders working on the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge decorate the walls. A dramatic portrait of the chain's master bakers dominates a back wall.

The bread bakery is one of the restaurant's three design mandates, according to Drake. Another is the bread rack and display of sweets at the counter. The third is the colors and finishes, which echo the look of Boudin's Fisherman's Wharf location in San Francisco, a 27,000-square-foot extravaganza that includes a bread shop, bread museum and full-service bistro.

Brand Evolution

Executives don't consider Boudin SF a prototype but rather the next step in a brand evolution. The first step was opening the Fisherman's Wharf unit in May 2005.

"We looked at this fantastic brand and company and wanted to start sharing it," Drake says of the concept and expansion plans, which call for 50 units to open in the next five years in Northern and Southern California and in a third market, which he would not disclose. "We wanted to capture the essence of Boudin."

The prototype bespeaks other changes at 15-unit Boudin, which is owned by GESD Capital Partners, a San Francisco-based private-equity firm. GESD partner Louis Giraudo's family bought the concept from the Boudin family in 1941. In August 2004, GESD purchased Go Roma Italian Kitchen, a four-unit fast-casual chain, and merged it with Boudin under a parent company called Forklift Brands.

Executives began working on the Boudin SF design in 2004 and located the Costa Mesa site, in the upscale South Coast Plaza mall, in January 2005. Aria Architects of Chicago completed the original plan, but before the Costa Mesa location opened, Boudin called in San Francisco-based Axis Architecture & Design to make some site-specific modifications.

Axis created a 3-D model of the space, then used it as a study model, explains Terryl Lofrano, architect and Axis principal. "The location turned out very much like the model," Lofrano says.

The space, wedged between a Claim Jumper and Z'Tejas, had been vacant. In a design surprise, it had no windows. Lofrano's challenges included adding two kinds of windows: those that allow views in and out of the restaurant, as well as shadow-box type windows that will serve as marketing and display cases. The windows are crisscrossed with black frames that evoke a Fisherman's Wharf warehouse.

Lofrano also expanded the storefront so it's more visible from the shopping center's parking lot. He also made the entry and order-taking space bigger.

Attention to Detail

While the space looks simple, details abound. Guests clip order numbers to small, matte-black wire stands on each table. The numbers are printed on round cardboard disks embellished with a bread-themed quotation. Wire-mesh partitions, reminiscent of a baker's rack, top the backs of banquettes.

Another important detail: a new menu. In addition to soups, sandwiches and salads, the menu features seven entrees, all made from scratch and engineered to be prepared in five minutes or less. The entrees have helped establish a strong dinner daypart: Dinner accounts for 30 percent of total sales, and the new entrees account for 30 percent of dinner orders, Drake says.

Tweaks already made and those in the works concern details as well. For instance, the company is not happy with the lighting of the bread display. "It's the wrong color," Drake says. "We're still working on it—we want to make it better." As for value engineering, "we'll do it both ways—add and subtract," says Drake, who will not release building costs.

In future stores, the aisle between the expediter station and the row of banquettes will be made wider for ease of negotiation, and the ceilings will be lowered to cut construction costs and give the space a cozier feeling, according to Lofrano. In addition, the company will dedicate one register to bread and call-ahead orders to streamline traffic flow at the counter.

Two weeks after opening, sales were somewhat ahead of plan, Drake says, but he won't release specific figures.

He says lots of traffic is coming from mall employees: "They will be our ambassadors." Initial marketing efforts included visiting nearby offices with samples of bread and holding a preopening party.

Grass-roots efforts, to be sure, but not unusual for a brand that, despite its history, considers itself young. "We're a 156-year-old startup," Drake says.