Le Quartier Baking Company

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By JEFF KORBELIK / GZO

The reason Le Quartier Baking Company opened a second location was basic economics: It needed to supply more to meet the demand.

“It actually accomplished two goals,” co-owner Seth Quiring said. “We have more production space and another store front.”

So far, it’s working out pretty well for Quiring and his baker brother, John.

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Le Quartier Baking Company sells raspberry danishes (center), almond croissants (from left), Pain aux Raisins and pecan rolls. (Robert Becker)

Open since late February, Le Quartier’s second location at 28th Street and Pine Lake Road offers the brothers’ delicious artisan breads as well as soups, pastries and sandwiches.

Le Quartier is one of those feel-good stories. The two brothers, who grew up on a farm in Hampton, came to Lincoln a couple of years ago with an idea to open their own bakery.

John developed his baking skills while living in Montreal with Seth. He then spent five months in France, where he honed his abilities before returning to Nebraska with his brother as a business partner.

The Quirings began selling their breads — known for their airy crumbs and crispy crusts — at area restaurants, then local grocery stores, before becoming big draws at Lincoln’s farmer’s markets.

They opened their first store at 69th and O streets in December 2006. Just more than a year later, with demand exceeding supply, they found a second place in the strip mall across from the SouthPointe Pavilions.

The new store is small, with seating for about 10 to 15. Pictures of Montreal cover the walls. The idea, Seth said, is for the new bakery to be more of a takeout place than a full-service restaurant or coffeehouse.

With two stores, the Quirings are able to make more of their specialty breads available, from the blue cheese loaf to ciabatta rolls to the extremely popular white sourdough.

They’ve also expanded their line of pastries (check out the individual cheesecakes) and now sell soup and take-and-bake pizzas.

The Quirings are really pushing the soup — available in 10- ($3) and 16-ounce ($4.50) sizes — at the new location. It goes well with the fresh-baked bread and the sandwiches.

Le Quartier has a soup/sandwich combination meal for $7.50. The bakery offers three sandwiches: chicken salad on a croissant, and ham and cheese or turkey pesto club on a ciabatta roll.

The bakery is unable to offer more sandwich selections because its lease limits the amount it can make off sandwich sales because of nearby Quizno’s. Starbucks is why no gourmet coffees are available at Le Quartier.

That’s fine with the Quirings. They find people are coming to them for breads, pastries and now soup.

As for the soup, Le Quartier offers two to three a day, with the extremely popular creamy tomato — a blend of chunky tomatoes, spinach and feta cheese — now on the menu all the time.

Other homemade soups include French onion, potato, split pea, Southwest corn chowder and chicken tortilla.

The take-and-bake pizzas ($7 each) also are worth trying. They include a pepperoni with a homemade marinara sauce, a vegetarian with a roasted pepper pesto sauce and a BBQ chicken.

I enjoyed a vegetarian pizza at home, which featured red and green peppers, portobello mushrooms and mozzarella cheese on Le Quartier’s wheat crust.

Of course, the bakery’s bread-and-butter is its bread. My favorites include blue cheese ($4), white sourdough ($3.75) and black olive sourdough ($4).   

If you haven’t tried a loaf, I suggest you stop by and pick one up. You will see for yourself why the demand for Le Quartier’s fare is growing.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.