Le Grenier
a Pain soft opened around 6 months ago and we were the first to bag a table at
their Sunday Brunch. We’d heard small things about this newly founded French café,
and followed the gossip of a basement bakery on Riverside producing the
flakiest croissants, the crustiest baguettes and the sweetest tarts. Hungrily,
on the back of these rave reviews our party of 12 hungrily poured over the menu
surrounded by funky Ikea style furniture, exposed ceilings and iron wrought
lightening trying to wrestle between Quiche Lorraine or Croque Monsieur. The
results were delicious, buttery and rich.
Fast Forward
to 6 months and I decided to visit Le Grenier a Pain again for a proper sit
down brunch. In the time between my visit today and today the establishment has
taken full shape. As you enter the middle section has been carved into a
rounded pod with display pods soon to show off the delicious delights from the
bakery below. Currently these are housed in the long curved glass cabinet at
the back of the café next to the upstairs kitchen, producing the main meals,
soups and salads other diners were hungrily devouring. Walking up to the
counter, todays offerings include the infamous fresh croissants, pain aux
raisin and tarts of varying colours and ingredients including lemon, chocolate
and raspberry.
Spotting
these made me ravenous and a friendly waitress observantly seated me on the
stylish curved sofa that looked out on the rest of the light airy Riverside café.
Quickly, I ordered a cappuccino perfectly illustrated with latte art and served
piping hot and extra strong, a sign of high quality coffee and an expert
barista who knew his way around the machine. Turning to the menu, options on
offer were wide and varied – it was a hard struggle between the Salad Nicosie,
the Vegetarian plate or the Ratatouille on toast. However, it has to be the
Croque Madame, a French favourite which I hoped has been well exported to
Kenya.
This of
course, did not disappoint. The Madame is a French sandwich served on three
fresh baked pieces of bread, evenly layered with cheese, turkey and topped with
a beautifully fried egg with a rich yellow yolk. The side salad, dressed in
soft olive oil and fresh cherry tomatoes partnered well with the richness of
the cheese. The ingredients tasted fresh and rich which for the price was
impressive at only 1000 for one of the best ‘sandwiches’ you can find in
Nairobi today. Unashamedly I ordered two tarts to help was down the calories,
choosing the Lemon ‘Citron’ Tart and the Chocolate Tart.
The Lemon
was sweet but held the citrus taste well and expertly set around the crumbly
case of pastry that is a feat of sheer wonder with Nairobi’s altitude. The
citron was complimented well with the flaked pistachio on top and the sweet
raspberry placed in the middle giving it a colourful fruity flourish. The
Chocolate was equally delicious and much richer and darker than on first appearance,
which I presumed would be hard and set but actually reveal a two tone style cake.
The top was dark and soft, a deep cocoa – whilst the middle was light and airy
with a mousse style consistence and expertly crafted once again around the
buttery pastry. This must be consumed with another cappuccino.
As I
devoured my two tarts and lay in a dreamy Parisian food coma I noticed the
other customers drinking, eating and enjoying the buttery goodness of the cafes
delights evenidenty showing the popularity of Le Grenier a Pain on the Thursday
lunchtime. The sunlight trickled through the large glass windows, as the
friendly staff delivered steaming hot cups of coffee, freshly baked scones and
hands down the finest Croque Madame and Monsieur this side of the Masaai Mara.
You can find Le Grenier a Pain on 9 Riverside Drive, Nairobi.
You can find Le Grenier a Pain on 9 Riverside Drive, Nairobi.
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To find out
more about this wonderful French delight, I sat down with Yan Welffens, General
Manager of Le Greiner a Pain to find out more…
Where did
the idea for a French Bakery come from?
It has been
a long and fun journey bringing French food to the city. I ended up in Kenya
2011, taking a break from working in It and Engineering in Europe. I started
backpacking and came to Nairobi on a stopover to hike Kilimanjaro, where
friends insisted I stay and find an opportunity here in hospitality. My first
hotel job was with Tribe hotel in June 2011, and the idea of a quality bakery
came during this time. I began to wonder why there was no good bread, no good
croissants, why is there nothing here? There are ingredients and a strong
middle class, so lets try and make it happen.
Why Le Grenier
a Pain?
Originally
we thought about doing it our selves but I hadn’t studied baking although I
love to cook at home. I knew the business requirements but didn’t have the
skills. Therefore, I travelled to India, to see if a successful bakery in India
– why? How did they do it? I spent a week in Mumbai and Delhi and worked with
the owners of ‘Salon de The’, a chain of high end bakeries that were proving
very successfully and this gave me the confidence to know that if it worked in
India then it could come to Kenya.
However logistics
and costs are high in Kenya, so we approached several European franchises to see
if they’d want to partner but they said no. However, before coming to Kenya, I
had lived 6 months in Paris during working in IT and remembered that there was
bakery on the same street, Le Grenier a Pain that served excellent baked goods
and breads. I contacted the website to see if they could bring the franchise to
Kenya and within 24 hours got a response and a plan to set up in Nairobi!
What makes
Grenier a Pain unqiue?
The transfer
of knowledge to our staff. We didn’t bring an expat chef, it’s expensive and we
didn’t want to follow the hotel model as many of them were negative, people
were in denial that you couldn’t get quality French made food in Kenya due to ingredients
and lack of knowledge.
Therefore
we employed local chefs and showed them how to learn to love the local ingredients
and trained the team on recipes. Le Grenier a Pain was also very supportive and we sent out two
head bakers Wallace and Agnes to France for 6 weeks in October 2015, with the
bakery’s founder Michael Gallover so they could learn the French style and bing
their skills back to Kenya.
Why did you
choose this location?
We decided
it had to be Westlands and I actually walked from Safaricom to Lavington Green
and went into every single building looking for potential space. We then contacted
Knight Frank and were ad shown 3 different locations and 9 Riverside Drive was
the first one we saw. In December 2015 we started fitting out the restaurant,
and opened as the basement bakery, with the reputation preceeding itself
through word of mouth and gossip.
How did you
recruit your staff?
Of course
in every country and every job it has been hit and miss. My biggest tip to
other restaurant owners is to trust your feelings and make mistakes. Agnes and
Wallace were core members, they had come from Tribe, and trained in France. Our
head Barista had a background from Dormans and showed confidence and skills in
his work. All our other floor staff and sous chefs came for a trial for a week
and I paid attention to details on: ‘are they working fast, attentive, are they
smiling?’. We started off with just 8 members of staff, now we have 30 and I
feel proud to employ so many hard working and dedicated people.
What’s been
your favourite part of opening Le Grenier a Pain?
Proving
naysayers wrong that we couldn’t open a Real French Bakery – because believe it
or not, all the ingredients are local!
The only
challenge was the baguettes and speciality bread, as the flour has to come from
France as recommended by Le Grenier a Pain, as its actually an award winning
Bread and has now been patented.
Who are
your customers?
A mix of
customers. One day I was sitting in the restaurant and observed the customers
in our café. We had a mixed race young couple with a baby, Two young Kenyans, 3
Muzungus in a business discussion, Two Kenyas in a business discussions and an
Indian family. This makes me happy, as This café really shows the people of Nairobi
–the diversity of the city here.
Where are
your Ingredients from?
All our
ingredients are from Kenya apart from some obvious items like Lemon, Oranges
Chocolate and Almonds. All our milk, butter and flour (expect for the
speciality breads) – all local. Our delicious coffee is from a local Roaster, Spring
Valley Coffee.
What’s your
favourite thing on the menu?
For savoury
it has to be the Croque Monsieur (see my shared review!) and for after, the sweet
is definitely the Apple Tart with Vanilla...
And
finally, future plans for expansion?
We would
like to open another one in Gigiri and then eventually take this franchise to
every large city in Africa. We are going to have a look at Addis Ababa and
obviously I would love to take it to my home country of Cote d’Ivore as well.
You can find Le
Grenier a Pain on 9 Riverside Drive, Nairobi.
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