An international array of savory and sweet treats entice at Tous Les Jours. (Clockwise from left: coffee bun, kimchi croquette, Portuguese egg tart)
By Marisa Marsey
Two buzzy bakery-cafés – one on the Peninsula, a Hampton Roads inroad for a red-hot international franchise, the other, a five-year old Southside Gallic darling with a new address – remind us what a small, sweet world it can be.
Tous Les Jours
Driving to Tous Les Jours recently to meet up with my pal Cina, a self-proclaimed ABC (American-born Chinese), I heard on the radio that Han Kang had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, a first for a Korean writer and an Asian woman (read her brutally-provocative “The Vegetarian”).
How apropos, I thought, I’m headed for Korean-French pastries! (OK, sounds trivial amidst the momentous pronouncement, but still…).
Founded in South Korea in 1996, this global chain feels right at home in Newport News, amplifying the Korean wave initiated at Jefferson Marketplace by the convivial Choice Korean Food Hall & Pub.
Since debuting in August, TLJ’s bright, open, boutique-y space has been nonstop busy; displays of cushy milk pillow bread, red-bean donuts and nubby kimchi croquettes continually replenished by personable staff eager to assist those confounded by the confluence of countless captivatingly-colored confections.
A sign admonishes: “Please do not squeeze bread.” I confess, I could barely resist squishing the oh-so-soft, torpedo-shaped honeydew melon loaf. Who could blame me given its undeniable freshness thanks to company policy mandating no bread be sold after day’s end.
Other signs detail procedure in this largely self-serve environment like “How to use a Tray”: 1) Cover tray with wax paper, 2) Use tongs to pick your items, 3) Return trays and tongs to the cashier. (This last step must be skipped often; a Post-it note stuck nearby iterates the instruction.)
This setup reminds me of panaderías I’ve visited in Mexico City, I mention to Cina. “The Asians did it first,” she replies pedantically (she’s worked in Mexico and speaks Mandarin and is usually right in such matters).
We decide to split our considered picks to double our pleasure and start choosing Western and Eastern delicacies including spinach feta Danish, Portuguese egg tarts and crusty-domed coffee buns.
We dodge mothers deftly balancing trays with one hand, maneuvering strollers with the other, and senior citizens rendezvousing for lacquered fruit pastry and specialty coffees produced by a $30,000 Italian espresso machine.
At the register, you can request those coffees (tiramisu latte, say, plus smoothies) as well as cloud cakes (whole or slice), three layers of sheet cake, in a rainbow of seven flavors including green tea and blueberry, separated by gossamery whipped cream. Less squeaky-sweet than many American frostings, it dissolves into a puff of air on the tongue. Order a piece to-go just for the precious little tote box and mind the kids casing the case of Pinkfong and Baby Shark cakes.
Owners J. R. and Julia Kim (she had a long-running café in Norfolk’s Dominion Tower), who came from Seoul over a quarter century ago, are scouting more locations in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. For now, I don’t mind braving the HRBT expansion. I realize that pastry shared between friends is far from trivial. It’s a noble prize.
12515 Jefferson Avenue, #150, Newport News. 757-755-3134. tljus.com.
La Brioche
I recently devoured Ruth Reichl’s “The Paris Novel.” Now flaky croissants and cute little canalés cancan across my mind prompting me to pop over to La Brioche’s new home in Ghent.
Aah, the unmistakable scent of baguettes emerging from the oven suffuses the alluring boulangerie-patisserie, a fragrance superior to Chanel and YSL. Deep inhale. While I miss the beloved Colley Discount Pharmacy, it’s as consoling as chocolate ganache cake that another family-run business moved in.
As I deliberate between palmiers and pecan tarts, delicate orange meringues resembling angels’ sinuous locks and savory blue cheese turnovers (Pierre “the Picasso of pastry” Hermé’s advice – “One of every treat” – seems reasonable here), a woman chats over the display case with co-owner Jackie Devulder in a rapid-fire French my high school lessons didn’t prepare me for. I pick up only ça va and oui, but the foreign tongue is like extra butter on the already-rich cranberry tartlet I finally choose.
There’s a sprinkling of tables inside but on this sunny afternoon I sit outside, admiring the well-coifed pooch nearby, looking straight out of central casting for a café scene. As well-bred as let’s call her Fifi appears, she fiercely seeks any lost crumbs. (I gaze at my all-too-soon empty plate and know exactly how she feels.)
Soon, I’m engrossed in English conversation with that French-speaking customer. Sarah Loignon recently moved here from Québec and was thrilled to discover “a good French bakery,” declaring La Brioche her go-to for bread, almond croissants and pain au chocolat. Getting to engage in her first language is icing on the gâteau.
Coincidentally, Jackie’s boulanger husband, Yvan, studied baking in Canada. They moved there from Martinique, where they met, to be closer to their children, but opened La Brioche in the burgeoning NEON District in 2019 after falling in love with Norfolk during visits to Jackie’s sister, a French teacher here. Each trip convinced them that the area needed an authentic French bakery like those they grew up with in Paris (her) and Dunkirk (him).
They miss their NEON neighbors but are enjoying Ghent’s ample parking and foot traffic. This new locale is a bit smaller than their two-story original, but plans call to expand hours and menu once more staff is onboard.
Back in my car, which quickly smells deliriously like a bakery itself thanks to the choux pastry of the luxurious éclairs I’m taking home, I turn on the radio. Whoa! More French. WHRO 90.3’s Saturday opera broadcast is “Samson” by Jean-Philippe Rameau. For a disconcerting moment I wonder: Where am I? Oh, I know. Better than Emily in Paris, it’s me in paradise.
1415 Colley Avenue, Norfolk. 757-226-9745. labriochenorfolk.com
Marisa Marsey is an award-winning writer. She has sipped Chateau d’Yquem ’75 with Jean-Louis Palladin, “sherpa-ed” for Edna Lewis and savored interviews with Wolfgang Puck, Patrick O’Connell and other legendary culinarians. She lives in Virginia Beach.
