{"id":281,"date":"2019-01-17T14:04:24","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T22:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=999934905"},"modified":"2019-01-17T14:04:24","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T22:04:24","slug":"french-bakery-o-gourmet-babettes-feast-belmont-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/french-bakery-o-gourmet-babettes-feast-belmont-shore","title":{"rendered":"French bakery O Gourmet to take over former Babette&#8217;s Feast space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the heels of the news that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/life\/food\/babettes-feast-magic-lamp-close-up-shop-in-belmont-shore\/\">Babette&#8217;s Feast had closed up shop in Belmont Shore<\/a>, Orange County-based French bakery \u00d4 Gourmet announced it will take over the space to make way for its second location.<\/p>\n<p>Owner and Paris native Eric\u00a0Djomby, along with his business partner Ben\u00f4it Jussaume, have long lived by one philosophy when it comes to introducing Californians to their food: keep it French, keep it genuine, keep it affordable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wake up every day at 3 a.m. because that is how I experienced cafes when I lived in France,&#8221; said Djomby, who practiced law before taking up baking, which he&#8217;s done professionally for two decades. &#8220;You would walk into a cafe and they would have\u00a0fresh, warm baguettes and our shop is about introducing that aspect of French culture to our customers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In other words, don&#8217;t expect bagels and donuts when you walk into \u00d4 Gourmet, something that Djomby is both proud and unapologetic about.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, it is his proud Keep-It-French-ness amongst the France Abroad scene that keeps these ex-pats interconnected, with Djomby saying that all French bakers in SoCal are in constant communication with one another. Fellow Frenchman\u00a0Christian Rebufat, owner of Babette Bakery in Poly Plaza, was how Djomby discovered the property in the Shore, one he felt was perfect for expansion, given the lack of a proper French bakery in the area.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"AFR7l8IdR6\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/food\/long-beach-tap-house-to-open-in-belmont-shore-alcoholic-shakes-and-vegan-burgers-included\">Long Beach Tap House to open in Belmont Shore (alcoholic shakes and vegan burgers included)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Long Beach Tap House to open in Belmont Shore (alcoholic shakes and vegan burgers included)&#8221; &#8212; the Hi-lo\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/food\/long-beach-tap-house-to-open-in-belmont-shore-alcoholic-shakes-and-vegan-burgers-included\/embed\/#?secret=xfguvcp0n8#?secret=AFR7l8IdR6\" data-secret=\"AFR7l8IdR6\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our location in San Juan Capistrano doesn&#8217;t have heavy foot traffic, it&#8217;s mainly folks who drive into the shopping center we&#8217;re at,&#8221; Djomby said. &#8220;So this location in Long Beach is very much an upgrade and will allow us to expand our menu in a way that we just can&#8217;t do at our original bakery.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This means an expanded menu. Sure, they will have their regular offerings of\u00a0<em>pissaladieres<\/em>\u2014caramelized onion, anchovies and black olive tarts\u2014and smoked salmon Eggs Benedict. And during the holidays, one can reasonably expect to find their versions of B\u00fbche de No\u00ebl and Galette des Rois.<\/p>\n<p>As for specifics, Djomby simply notes that they&#8217;re tinkering with food and wine, the latter of which will some Californian offerings but mainly stick to French wines. The same lack of specificity goes for the timeline toward an opening, given they are in the midst of the permitting process.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we can guarantee you,&#8221; Djomby said, &#8220;is that it will be one of the closest things to a genuine French bakery that you can get to in the area.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00d4 Gourmet will be located at\u00a04621 E. Second St.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Brian Addison is a columnist and editor for the Long Beach Post.\u00a0Reach him at\u00a0brian@lbpost.com\u00a0or on social media at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BrianAddisonLB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/BrianAddisonLB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/BrianAddisonLB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/brianaddison\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LinkedIn<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shortly following the announcement that Babette&#8217;s Feast closed up shop in the Shore, Orange County-based French bakery \u00d4 Gourmet will take over the space to open its second location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":65809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[38],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-belmont-shore","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}