PAUL Opening Rescheduled


The building at 1078 Wisconsin Ave. was built in 1889, the same year PAUL Bakery started in northern France, Marketing Manager Laetitia Steiner said about the bakery’s new location in Georgetown.

“So that’s like destiny,” she said.

PAUL began in Lille in northern France as a family-built company, and is now an international chain bakery with 453 shops in 25 different countries around the world. The new Georgetown location, however, gives PAUL an advantage because of its authentic old structure that adds to PAUL’S experience.

PAUL, which has announced various opening dates, is set to open up in Georgetown on Nov. 21, marking its first official day of business.

“When we started building the store we had to re-secure the whole thing,” Steiner said. “But we kept as much original stuff as we could, like the brick walls.”

She explained that all of the decoration is imported and that they made sure with their local architect that everything stayed true to PAUL’s spirit. She said she feels that Georgetown seems to have some knowledge of what PAUL is supposed to be like and that this location provides what the bakeries in France offer.

“I feel that Georgetown knows what this bakery is, what PAUL is,” she said. “Georgetown residents have a great knowledge of our breads and they tell me they’ve been to PAUL and ask if we will keep that certain grain they like. I say yes, we will.”

There were some Georgetown residents, she said, who asked her if a specific bread, Badine, was going to be served at the new location. Steiner is hopeful for the success of the new shop because the future customers have a good knowledge of the product.

“We are going to make sure that we reach the quality expectation of the company every single day,” Steiner said.

Steiner said she is excited that the specially-crafted breads and gourmet coffee that PAUL has served for many years, will be available at Georgetown’s location.

“At the end of training there are people that want to come in and we say, look we’re not open but let us give you some food and we have had amazing feedback,” Steiner said. “We are just so happy to finally open because it has been an ongoing story for more than three years,” she said.

There was another PAUL that opened May 2, 2011 in downtown D.C., but what makes this new location very different, according to Steiner, is the way it will staff its café with servers rather than providing a self-service café.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *