Tony’s Expanding Into Dieppe With New Bakery And Restaurant
MONCTON – Tony’s Bistro & Patisserie is expanding again, this time with plans to open a restaurant and a bakery in downtown Dieppe in the first week of June.
“One is going to be a restaurant, with breakfast, lunch and dinner. And the other part is going to be a boulangerie at the other side of the building,” executive chef and owner Tony Holden explained.
The idea to open in Dieppe comes from the community, Holden said.
“We have a lot of people who really want us to come to Dieppe. We love that area, we really like our landlords…and to be close to the Dieppe market is very nice, too, because we shop there every Saturday anyway to buy local products for our restaurant here.”
The new locations will have two separate entrances, but both will be located on the main level of the mixed-use commercial building on 50 du Marché st., across from the Wingate Hotel, and steps away from the Dieppe Market.
They also will have different names – Holden is still undecided on those, as well as a different vibe and menu.
The sit-down restaurant will have up to 60 seats. It will serve a “more classical French” menu, and will have an outdoors cafe in the summer. Holden’s youngest son Jordan, who has been training under him, will be the executive chef.
“We want to have really fine food there, but in a casual atmosphere,” said Holden, whose training is in French cuisine and pastry.
The bakery will offer desserts, breads and quick-serve food like sandwiches, but it won’t sell whole cakes. There will be some seating there as well.
The expansion means Holden will have to add 30 more people to his current staff of 43.
Tony’s Bistro & Patisserie expanded in 2018 to add more seatings in the restaurant and to offer a seven-day breakfast, lunch and dinner service on top of its bakery and pastry shop. It took over the Cooperators Insurance office next door.
“Not a lot of restaurants have 43 staff but it’s because we make everything from scratch. There is nothing from the bag, from the pouch…we really pride ourselves in that. And that’s what really helped us grow,” Holden said.
“We’re a destination place and I like to think we’re a destination place because of the food that we serve.”
He said his team is a key reason Tony’s can expand and doesn’t plan to stop.
“We can grow now because we feel like we have such a good team. Now is the time to do it,” he said.
“We don’t want to lose anybody and this is why we want to grow, so we give people who are working here right now an opportunity to move up in the company,” he added.
In order to expand in a traditionally tough industry, he said he had to learn to pass on the baton.
“My focus has always been quality and training. When I was small, if I just stayed by myself and I didn’t trust other people to do some of the jobs that I do, I could never grow,” he said. “People can surprise you if you give them the chance.”
“So, when I got somebody that’s got some talent, I rely on them a lot. I got a pastry chef that’s been with me for 12 years and she runs the pastry department right now.”
A native of St. John’s, N.L., Holden fell in love with pastries in 1982 when he met a pastry chef from Quebec City and worked with him at a resort hotel in Digby, N.S. He started his business out of the Moncton market in 2001.
After more than a decade at the Elmwood location, Holden is still the executive chef, while his oldest son manages the place and his wife helps him in the office.
“I’m just not hands-on on everything all the time. But I’m teaching so I can pass that job to somebody else. It really worked out for me and it helps as well that my family’s involved,” he said.