Duchess: Experience World-Class Pastries Without Leaving the City

Since 2009, Edmonton has been home to a unique and one-of-a-kind-bakery located on 124^th Street that cannot be found anywhere else in the city and the store goes by the name of Duchess Bake Shop. This bake shop integrates European culture alongside Edmonton culture to provide an exceptional experience for their customers. The store focuses on providing high quality pastries and baked goods but as an added bonus, an additional store is connected to the bakery by the name of Duchess Provisions that sells all the best bake ware and ingredients used to make their delicious treats. The owner of Duchess, Giselle Courteau had first gone to Japan for four years to learn how to cook and through that experience, perfected how to make a macaroon and many other pastries. This small store now has become so big that it can serve a couple hundred people within the first hour of opening on weekends. Although there is only one store, the quality of food and service is enough to convince people to make the drive down to the bake shop even if the store is inconveniently located. People are even willing to stand in line for long periods of time so that they can make their purchases and most will overlook the price because of the high quality products.

The store format resembles an early 19^th Century Parisian style having white walls with gold moldings and gold ceilings. They have modern tables and chairs that do however resemble French café style seating. The display counters that hold the pastries are clear and not very cluttered so that consumers will be able to see all the desserts they offer. All the pastries are made the day of, at the back of the store in their kitchen. Unlike stores like Tim Hortons that continuously make their donuts throughout the day so that they do not run out of stock, Duchess makes only a specific amount of each pastry in which they sell till they are out of stock. The only exception to this is their very popular Macaroons, which is the most sold product which is why they produce lots of them in order to meet demands. While a person can just stop by the store to purchase some pastries, the store also has a seating area so that people can relax and enjoy their treats. The owner of Duchess, Giselle Courteau, has gone above and beyond to make sure that customers know that their experience is a priority. They have even gone as far to have their drink menu be drawn by hand with extensive detail.

I’ve heard many great reviews about Duchess from many friends but it never meant anything to me until I had gone myself to Duchess a couple weeks ago for my first time. The overall experience of my trip to Duchess had made me fall in love, from their physical environment to the wait staff and even their pastries exceeded expectations. The store was designed to look elegant and comfortable so when I was there, it felt like my purchase was luxurious and so the price was overlooked. Although the store is far away, I would make the trip again.

 Resources:

http://duchessbakeshop.com/pages/about-us

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/food-trends/behind-the-scenes-of-edmontons-duchess-bake-shop/article25499694/

http://landfaculty.com/work/duchess/