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Red Cap Patisserie brightened up the former Lucille's Bakery space with a crisp coat of paint, red accents and an open floor plan. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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Red Cap Patisserie chef and co-owner Martine Wladar (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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Scones like this cranberry-orange confection will be available daily. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
With fluffy kouign amann, perfectly dense scones, filled croissants and a selection of savory hand pies, Red Cap Patisserie opened this morning, bringing new bakery life to the former Lucille's space.
"People came for the pastries, but we're starting to set up for more savory stuff," says chef and co-owner Martine Wladar, who began selling baked goods with her husband, John, first to The Lab by Alchemy Coffee, then at The Farmers Market at St. Stephen's. Today, after a little more than two years of baking for other businesses and events, the husband-and-wife team opens Red Cap's first brick-and-mortar location, at 719 N. Meadow St.
It's a European-inspired bakery, one with turnovers, crumb cake, sticky buns and croissants, as well as cookies such as oatmeal and almond with sour cherries, plus cupcakes, mini apple pies, and even a few occasional treats like sweet-and-spicy pecans or house-made chocolates. A major focus is savory, however, by way of the bakery's tourtière selection: small hand pies filled with beef and caramelized onion; pork with plum and pear; chicken with bacon and peas; shiitake with cream; and potato with cheddar and onion, to name a few. These run $4.25 each, with cookies at $2, and pastries around $3.25. All prices written on the day's swatch of brown butcher paper include taxes. You'll also find coffee from Scott's Addition's Ironclad Coffee Roasters — which is currently developing a special blend for the bakery — as well as flavored San Pellegrino and Perrier. Don't expect seating, save for two stools. (Think bakery, not café.)
The space is much brighter now, with Lucille's mellow, yellow-painted walls replaced by crisp white, and the dividing wall behind the counter knocked down to reveal an open kitchen.
"I did a farmers market right out of cooking school, so we'd been laughing that we've come full circle. Like, 'Really? Are we back here now? So we always thought we might open [a bakery]," says Martine, who trained at The New School in New York City. Upon graduating, the pastry chef staged at Le Cirque, and worked her way through New York restaurants and pastry catering. She moved to Richmond just under three years ago, eventually working out of commercial kitchen space Kitchen Thyme, where she met Abbie Toner of Eat Smart. The two now share the kitchen of Red Cap's new Fan home. While the Wladars initially hoped to rent commercial space to other food outlets, they might just be capping it at Red Cap and Eat Smart. They've got a lot on their plates: Red Cap will continue to provide pastries to Alchemy, and sell at St. Stephens weekly.
"We're excited to be here," Martine says. "We're really excited and just hope people enjoy it. So far, so good."
Red Cap Patisserie is now open at 719 N. Meadow St., with hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday.
