Los Altos bakery still fresh after 25 years

By Pam Walatka, Special to the Town Crier

Le Boulanger, the bakery café with the French name started by an Italian family, is celebrating 25 years in business this year. Begun in Los Altos in August 1981, the business now boasts 17 area stores and a thriving wholesale business.

Le Boulanger (pronounced “luh boo-lahn-zhay”) is French for “the baker.” When Los Altos native Roger Brunello started Le Boulanger in the Main Street spot now occupied by Posh Bagel, French pastries and bread were experiencing a surge of popularity in America - hence the French name. About a month after Roger started Le Boulanger, his brother Dan came back from his honeymoon and joined the business.

The art deco building that is Le Boulanger’s current home was originally the Los Altos Pharmacy. When Le Boulanger took over the space in 1991, it was leased by Naturalizer Shoes. Le Boulanger renovated the interior and exterior of the building.

The patriarch of the Brunello family, Paul, started in the bakery business shortly after he came to Weed on the western slopes of Mt. Shasta from Treviso, Italy, in 1926. In 1957, the family moved to Los Altos for the excellent schools. When Roger retired recently, Dan took over as president.

“When we started out, we never would have imagined what Le Boulanger has accomplished over the years,” Dan said. “My father passed away after helping us with the first store. As we progressed, Mom always said, ‘If Father could only see this!’ The whole company team is proud that we were allowed to make something out of this. The company is now about 375 people.”

On average, Le Boulanger sells 2,500 loaves of bread each week just at its Los Altos location. Average total retail bread sales each week at all 17 locations is 42,500 loaves. Le Boulanger offers more than 40 varieties of baked goods at each of its retail locations, and 250 varieties of baked goods for wholesale.

Companywide (wholesale and retail), Le Boulanger uses 100,000 pounds of flour each week. All raw dough products are produced at the Sunnyvale facility. Each retail location bakes its own products fresh daily.

Le Boulanger projects more than $25 million in companywide sales, wholesale and retail, this year. The company received the Grand Prize at the San Francisco Fair and Exposition Sourdough competition and the Silicon Valley Family Business of the Year Award.

The stores also expanded beyond the bakery concept. A full café menu of soups, salads and sandwiches is offered, and there is an espresso bar at every outlet. Recently, all the stores were turned into Wi-Fi hotspots, giving customers free Internet access from appropriately equipped laptops.

To help celebrate its 25th anniversary, Le Boulanger is conducting a recipe contest, with a first prize of three nights for two at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, with dinner at Mon Ami Gabi. Second prize is two nights for two in Napa Valley, with dinner (and reservations) at the French Laundry.

Contestants can pick up entry forms at any Le Boulanger location, and must submit entries by Aug. 25. Recipes should complement Le Boulanger’s regular menu.

“We are going to our customer base to find exciting new recipes they think might fit, with possible inclusion on our menu,” Dan said. “Variety on the menu has always been important to us. Unique things are great, but they have to be things the customers can recognize and identify, not too strange. We can be more creative on the bakery side, because the bakery is very visual - the people see the new items.”

Le Boulanger continues to be family owned and operated. Dan said he feels “fortunate to be able to connect with our communities, participate in community events.

“You don’t find a lot of multiunit operations that are able to maintain that kind of connection,” he said. “Our core values are to maintain a high standard of quality and service. We have learned that it is important to stick to core values, to keep the concept pure.

“We have always prided ourselves in using the very finest quality ingredients. We got that from our father, who told us, ‘People come to the bakery to find things that taste good.’ On the other hand, we try to tailor many of our menu items to be healthy and good-tasting.”

Le Boulanger’s motto for the 25th anniversary is “Still fresh after all of these years!”

For more information, visit www.leboulanger.com or call Le Boulanger’s corporate headquarters at (408) 774-9000. The Los Altos bakery, 301 Main St., is open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. It can be reached by calling 949-3429.