Gracious Bakery owners looking to sell after more than a decade serving pastries

Megan Forman says it has been hard to avoid the "bittersweet" cliché when talking about her decision, together with husband and cofounder Jay Forman, to sell their Gracious Bakery and Café business, which has consumed their lives since they first opened in New Orleans a baker's-dozen years ago.

The bakery and café started as a small operation in Gert Town in 2012. It was the culmination of a lifelong passion for pastry that took Megan to the New England Culinary Institute in her 20s, to work for top pastry chefs in New York City and back to New Orleans to be part of the "artisanal" food movement in the early 2000s. Having grown the business into one that boasts about $2 million in annual sales, Megan and Jay, now in their early 50s, have decided it's time to focus on other pursuits.

"I've been a pastry chef for 30 years and I'm now getting my masters in counseling," said Megan, who is in the second year of post-graduate studies in clinical mental health counselling at University of New Orleans. "I'm now excited about that in the same way I was excited about pastry in my 20s."

Jay, who was in educational software before the couple opened Gracious, said that as their daughter approaches the end of her high school years, they decided to reevaluate the hard grind of the food production business, especially as it moves into a new phase of growth.

"For us it's a quality-of-life question," he said. "This is the kind of business where you have to be present and on site all the time and we're just ready for the next stage of our lives."

'Artisanal at scale'

Since the two native New Orleanians started the business at the Woodward Design+Build building on Norman C. Francis Parkway in Gert Town, back when the thoroughfare was still known as Jefferson Davis Parkway, it has grown substantially. Now, there are two bustling cafés — one on St. Charles Avenue in the Garden District, across from Christ Church Cathedral, and one on Prytania Street on the commercial strip that includes Creole Creamery — as well as an industrial-scale bakery on Earhart Boulevard.

The bakery's wholesale and commercial business has seen the most growth recently and already accounts for 60% of sales.

Gracious processes hundreds of pounds of dough every day and sells wholesale to independent operators, like Justine in the French Quarter, Commander's Palace, Le Petite Grocery, as well as supplying the two retail shops. They also sell products like gourmet king cake through Whole Foods, candied pecans at Sazerac House, beignet mix via Fleurty Girl, and various products through online gourmet retailer Goldbelly.com.

But perhaps the biggest immediate prospect for growth comes from the company's certification last fall to do commercial-scale food production for companies that supply organizations like Tulane University and Caesars Superdome, Jay said.

The HACCP certification (which stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is required by many big retailers, supermarkets, and food service providers (think Walmart, Costco, Amazon, etc.) before they will even consider a food business for supply contracts. Since getting certified, Gracious has won contracts from Sodexo for Caesars Superdome (e.g., for corporate suites hospitality at Super Bowl LIX), as well as from Aramark Collegiate Hospitality for Tulane University.

"I don't think a lot of people will know that the core of our business is actually baking for other companies around town," Jay said. "We have an existing wholesale book that is year-round and that is also poised for growth."

Gracious made it through the tough times of the last decade, but they had to deal with the same series of crises that drove many out of the food service business.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of almost one in seven restaurants in the U.S., according to the National Restaurant Association. The sector was one of the hardest hit in 2020-2021 and the inflation surge that followed and drove up raw materials, labor costs and rents also made it difficult for many to survive. New Orleans restaurants were hit particularly hard and the fallout is still being felt.

Gracious had to close its original outlet when the Gert Town neighborhood was hit by office closures and remote working, affecting nearby employers like Xavier University. Also, the old Coca-Cola building next door to their original outlet saw many of the small businesses depart after the building was sold to developer Tim Baudier in 2021.

Gracious now employs about half the 80 staff it had at peak, a reduction that also reflects outsourcing its delivery operation.

No regrets

Megan Forman said she has no regrets about their struggles. She aimed to create a better work environment than the ones she came up in, which were often male dominated and hostile.

"I've tried to be a very woman-focused company because I had some pretty bad experiences, as you might imagine, working in New York in the '90s," she said.

She reflects wistfully on the opportunities she had to work with big name chefs at a great time for pastry craft baking. They included Richard Leach at Park Avenue Café, who was renown for his innovative and artistic approach to plated desserts, like deconstructed cheesecakes and fruit tarts. Also, Joanne Chang at Payard Patisserie & Bistro, who now owns Flour Bakery and Café in Boston.

In New Orleans, Megan worked as pastry chef for Susan Spicer at Bayona and later was in at the start of Sucré in 2007, which was created by local restaurateur Joel Dondis with pastry chef Tariq Hanna.

"I was just so passionate about it," Megan said, adding that she and Jay were lucky to catch the zeitgeist that saw a boom in artisanal bakeries, like Tartine in San Francisco, and a larger food movement that emphasized craftsmanship, locally sourced ingredients, and a return to traditional baking techniques.

The tagline for Gracious is "artisanal at scale," which Jay says is meant to convey that they're not too precious.

"The idea of a 'boutique baker' can oftentimes bring to mind fussy millennials who are hard to work with, but we're not like that. We're business people," he said.

Interested buyers will have access to an online "deal room" once they've signed a non-disclosure agreement, said Parke McEnery, who is brokering the sale for the owners. They own the building on Earhart Boulevard, which is about 5,000 square feet and includes hundreds of thousands of dollars of industrial baking equipment. Part of the building is also leased to another commercial tenant.

Both the Prytania Street and St. Charles Avenue outlets are leased and have liquor licenses. The St. Charles Avenue spot also has been granted a special event license in recent years and has become a fixture for Uptown Mardi Gras revelers. Jay can be found there stirring giant tubs of Hunch Punch during the season. Sales during Mardi Gras season have been brisk enough to cover annual operating expenses, he said.

"That's where we are with the business now," Jay said. "It's grown up and ready to stretch its wings and see what it can do with new owners."