James Beard-Nominated Bakery Moves Into Its New, Bigger Home

After four years, three James Beard nominations, and seemingly countless fawning reviews, the highly acclaimed Poulette Bakeshop in Parker is starting a new chapter. 

On Wednesday, March 11, husband-and-wife owners Alen Ramos and Carolyn Nugent opened the doors to a line of people over twenty deep, all waiting patiently in the 25-degree cold at 8 a.m. Lines are nothing new for Poulette, but for the first time, the crowd was gathered 2.5 miles north of the bakery’s original location in a nondescript strip mall at 19585 Hess Road. Now, the bakery is located on the corner of Mainstreet and Pine, where it fills a brand new space anchoring the retail portion of the new Juniper apartment complex. 

As moves go, this one is a pretty simple one for the couple, whose baking resume spans the globe, including old-world stints in France, Switzerland and Spain, as well as at San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery and Quince, the Michelin three-star L2o in Chicago, and with Thomas Keller at Bouchon Bakery in Los Angeles, among others. 

They wound up in Parker to be closer to family, and have since been named among the 22 Best Independent Bakeries in the United States by the New York Times and are three-time James Beard semifinalists, this year in the Outstanding Bakery category.

A reputation like that could easily justify moving to the big city up north. But Nugent says staying in small-town Parker was a no-brainer. 

“There’s a lot of trepidation for chefs opening in a suburban area, especially going south, but I would say that it’s worked very well for our business,” she says. “We’re trying to weave our business into the daily ritual of people, which you find that more often in a suburban business. In a metropolitan area, it’s rare to see repeat guests in the same week. Here in Parker, we have multiple guests returning three, even four times a week.”

With the new space, that goal becomes a lot easier. Not only is it in a prime walkable location on the popular Mainstreet, but it’s also nearly double the size of its previous home, where the team had to gradually eliminate seating, the coffee bar, and other amenities to accommodate growing production needs. Workers were practically running into each other. 

“We just didn’t have enough space to work,” Nugent says. “We were all fighting for space every day, every morning, every afternoon.”

But with expanded facilities, the same staff can now do more with more. That means not only a seating area (twenty seats scattered between two- and four-top rounds, with additional seating outside along the prime corner location), but more walk-in coolers, ovens and counter space to make the Poulette magic happen. 

Soon, guests will notice the impact of the elbow room the back-of-house production space now provides (which passersby can look into thanks to large windows that put the work on display for all to see). According to Nugent, all areas of production will see increases and new capabilities.

The biggest immediate change: “The thing that we’re very excited about is bringing back our bread program,” Nugent says, namechecking baguettes, country loaves and fougasse (flatbread). “That’s something that we’re going to be bringing back daily once we have that program back up and running.” 

With bread comes sandwiches, something the old location attempted but soon had to press pause on for lack of space to properly execute. In particular, the lack of walk-in cooler space made it nearly impossible to ferment the dough overnight in the way the team wanted. 

On day one at the new Poulette, the lineup was pretty straightforward. The butter croissants and pain au chocolate were plentiful, but there were no almond croissants just yet. There were cakes, cookies, brioches, ducasse, kouign amanns, jamdauers and xuixos — and of course, macarons. 

And as usual, Poulette sold out, although a bit earlier than normal. On Wednesday, the goods were gone by 11:30 a.m., even though production had been ramped up to prepare for the expected crowds. On a normal Wednesday, according to Nugent, there are still a few things left even at closing time. But on this day, nary a crumb was available. And that, Nugent says, is the idea. 

“Waste in a bakery is a very, very big problem,” she notes. “You want to try to sell out every day, because you don’t want to ever carry anything over to the next day, because that’s below the standard.”

As for what’s next, Nugent says Poulette plans to settle in, make a few very selective hires as the bread-baking program ramps up, and, later in the year, start offering hands-on baking classes. 

And who knows, maybe even expand to Denver if the situation is right. 

“We will never say no to opportunities,” she says. “We’ve been approached many times for expansion. And if we found a place that makes sense to us, if somebody wants to work with us to make that dream come true, if we could figure out what works in what place and what’s best for the community, then we will never say no to a great opportunity.”

Poulette Bakeshop is located at 19865 Mainstreet in Parker and is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday. For more information, visit poulettebakeshop.com