NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Five years after opening in Norfolk’s Neon District, popular French bakery La Brioche is heading across town in the heart of Ghent.
The bakery will take over the former home of Colley Discount Pharmacy, a beloved local business that closed last year after about four decades.
La Brioche’s owners Jacqueline and Yvan Devulder, who were born and raised in France, are making the leap after building a devoted following with their authentic French baguettes and delicate pastries.
They’re excited for the move but “right now it’s a lot of work.”
They’re having to redo the whole space at the former pharmacy ahead of a move by the end of May. They plan to open sometime in early June.
And then there’s the bakery’s roughly 2 and 1/2 ton oven, which will take about one week to disassemble, move and reassemble. Moving the fridge and proofer will take about the same amount of time, Jacqueline said.
“Of course it’s adding expenses. That was not the plan because of course we made a big investment at the beginning of March 2019.”
In total, the move’s expected to cost about $160,000. They’re hoping a fundraiser via GoFundMe can raise about $40,000 toward that figure.
“It’s difficult for us to finance through the bank given our non-immigrant E2 Visas,” the Devulders said. “If you love La Brioche, please help us relocate. Any donation amount is much appreciated.”
Jacqueline said they would have liked to stay at their current location, but several things came together as they neared the end of their lease that spurred them to move.
First, they’re hoping for more foot traffic, which Jacqueline says has dropped off more in particular over the last year. They expected traffic to decrease further with upcoming sidewalk refurbishments in the area that could take up to two years.
Many of the bakery’s loyal customers live around Ghent and tend to do their other small business shopping locally at places like Le Marche and the Pendulum Fine Meats butcher shop, Jacqueline said.
“I like the Neon because we know our neighbors, they’re our customers too, it’s just for the business, it’s better to move to a pedestrian area closer to EVMS and Sentara.”
Jacqueline said they were optimistic traffic would pick up at Neon with the completion of a planned Tidewater Community College visual and culinary arts center for the old Greyhound station nearby, but that project fell through in 2020.
And while she’s hopeful the Houndstooth mixed-use residential project now planned for that space will help the Neon District, she says she and her husband didn’t have time to wait.
“It’s a little bit sad because [Mary Miller and Rachel McCall from the Downtown Norfolk Council] put a lot of effort to grow [the Neon District], … but it’s just a business decision we had to make. … We cannot wait. … They are building [residential] but it takes so much time,” adding, “everything gets more expensive, takes more time, and we don’t have time.”
Jacqueline also noted they’ve gotten less traffic this past year from cruise ships (cruise traffic was supposed to stop entirely in 2024 for terminal renovations, but it did resume this April due to the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse) and there seems to be fewer people from the Navy coming by as well due to deployments (Norfolk-based ships were extended after Hamas’ attack on Israel).
However, Jacqueline says she believes it’ll all pay off in the end.
In the new location, they hope to expand their hours until 5 p.m. or potentially later (they currently usually close around 1:30 p.m.) and start offering more to-go options for people looking for something after school or for dinner.
Plus, they’ll finally be able to take advantage of their beer and wine license, which didn’t catch on much at their current spot due to the hours.
“It’s only French wine, of course,” Jacqueline said, jokingly.
Overall, the Devulders said Colley and the former pharmacy space just made more sense than places like Downtown (where parking was a concern) and elsewhere in Hampton Roads.
“We think it’s gonna be nice … a new opportunity … and the most important thing is that we’re staying in Norfolk.”
