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Joel Dondis and Tariq Hanna are bullish about New Orleans' sweet tooth.
They spent $1 million transforming the former Hemline clothing boutique at 3025 Magazine St. into a sleek sweet shop called Sucre (French for sweet) and are confident the gourmet dessert-only menu, a new concept for New Orleans, will catch on.
"(Sucre is) the first in the region of its kind," Dondis said. "The closest thing to it would be in Los Angeles or New York City. "
Sucre, which opened April 20, is an emporium of "artisan" sweets, as Dondis puts it, all made on site in a climate-controlled kitchen. The kitchen will be kept at a permanent relative humidity of 45 degrees, the optimum environment for handling the Swiss dark chocolate favored by the Sucre kitchen team. This is no easy feat in muggy New Orleans.
"We hired a mechanical engineer," Dondis said. "The walls and roof are specially insulated. Our (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) is cutting edge. "
The shop will offer an extensive menu of pastries and cream-filled macaroons created by Hanna and Megan Forman, the former pastry chef at Bayona, as well as 24 flavors of house-made gelato, a selection of chocolates and a full complement of espresso drinks.
"I think this shop could be on Madison Avenue (in New York)," Dondis said.
Unlike a traditional bakery, Sucre will serve plated desserts with custom garnishes in addition to boxed sweets. The Web site shopsucre.com will ship chocolates nationwide.
"Every week or so there will be a little change in the menu," said Hanna, a pastry chef originally from Nigeria who moved to New Orleans from Detroit after Hurricane Katrina. "There will be an emphasis on seasonality. "
Sucre follows a growing trend of high-end dessert-only restaurants. According to Nation's Restaurant News, a publication of the National Restaurant Association, dessert restaurants such as Finale in Boston and Room 4 Dessert in New York have been increasingly successful since opening in 1998 and 2005, respectively.
"People are getting so much more sophisticated so fast," Dondis said. "Why do you think McDonald's is suffering? Their customer base is evolving faster than their core product. "
Just down Magazine Street from Sucre, a new gelato shop called Divina Gelateria has opened.
"New Orleans has always been very accepting and embracing of new things like this," said Louisiana Restaurant Association spokesman Tom Weatherly. "The restaurant business is different from other businesses in that when a competitor opens right next door to you, it's not necessarily a bad thing. When people enjoy one place, it's natural for them to want to try something else in the same vein. "
Sucre's decor is sleek, with marble and stained wood accents. The pastel-toned pastry boxes bear the company logo, designed by Peter A. Mayer Advertising.
Despite high-end touches and what Dondis calls a "flavor-forward" approach, he said Sucre is not a "special occasion place. "
"Who says that having something beautiful has to be expensive?" Dondis said. "Everything that I read about the way the market is trending today - people go to Starbucks because of the consistency, the sense of care put into the environment - it's about making people feel good. "
Dondis also plans to open another restaurant called Grand Isle on the Fulton Street promenade in late May. The casual seafood restaurant will specialize in local catches and cold beer on the site of a former parking garage.
The refurbishment will cost about $3 million. Dondis has bought rights to a large number of iconic photographs of Grand Isle fishermen by Louisiana photographer Fonville Winans to cover the newly installed rough-hewn cypress walls.
Harrah's, which owns the pedestrian-only block of Fulton Street, is renting space to Dondis.
Dondis, who first opened a business in 1993 for $5,000 at Joel Catering and Events, will employ more than 100 people between Sucre and Grand Isle.
"We're very excited about Fulton Street," said Sandie McNamara, vice president or marketing at Harrah's. "It's one of the only places where you can actually sit outside and watch the crowd. "
If Grand Isle is a hit, Dondis hopes to franchise it in other cities.
"It's organized so that we can do 10 of these," he said. "Harrah's looks like they could be a good partner. We'd also look into other markets - Miami could be good. Maybe Birmingham, (Ala.)" |
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