A Feeling Of Paris In Tony’s New Restaurant And Pastry Shop In Dieppe
DIEPPE – A pandemic isn’t stopping Tony Holden from expanding his restaurant and pastry business to Dieppe.
The chef owns Tony’s Bistro and Patisseries on McLaughlin Rd., and his family runs it with him. Now, the Holdens are almost ready to open their new restaurant Atelier Tony and bakery Boulangerie Tony, at 50 Rue du Marché, across the street from the Dieppe market.
“We were already rolling before Covid even happened,” said Tony, “But even if we didn’t have the wheels rolling, we still would have done it, I think just for the fact that we have good people, this is a great location here, and I love our landlords.”
“It was definitely the next step in our evolution as a company,” he said.
They initially planned to open in June, but now the hope is to open in November. No date’s been set yet as they wait for some kitchen equipment to arrive from Europe.
“We don’t want to open until we’re ready because I think you get one chance to make a good first impression,” Tony says.
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The Dieppe locations look very different from the McLaughlin location.
Though the bakery and restaurant share a walk-in fridge and their kitchens are connected by a hallway, there are two separate entrances.
“It’s two totally separate identities and styles,” said Chris, Tony’s son and the company’s general manager.
Jordan, Tony’s younger son, is Atelier’s executive chef. The cuisine will have international influences but with French cooking style. There will be a cocktail and wine menu, too.
“It’s a lot of French techniques with local food,” Jordan says.
Atelier has a capacity for 60 seats, but that will be slashed to about half during the pandemic.
On the bakery side, they will sell artisan bread, French pastries, sandwiches and coffee. It will also run on a limited seating capacity of approximately 12, instead of 20.
Chris says the restaurant and bakery will be a “showcase for local products and local artisans.” Not only will Tony’s team make everything from scratch in-house, but they’ll also be using ingredients from local farms, dishware from Clayspace, coffee from Epoch Chemistry, and art from local artists.
Tony says they’d been eyeing that location since 2018. The time has come to expand with a second location, to allow for staff to move up the ranks as well. He’s already promoted one assistant baker to head baker.
“Our team is strong enough that we could expand and get a second location,” he said. “I always wanted another bakery with a different style of kitchen type of thing, so it just blended together beautifully for us.”
The Dieppe market is one of the key reasons for the location choice. They’ve been a long-time customer of vendors at that market, and the Holdens plan to buy more of what those vendors have to offer.
“We’re really excited about how Dieppe is doing downtown, and just how far along the Dieppe market has come,” Chris said.
Additionally, they want to fill a vacant niche in downtown Dieppe – “sort of a higher-end food, a more unique dining experience,” Chris said.
Tony said while he’s worried customer traffic will be slower, it won’t stop him from moving forward.
“I don’t think Covid is going to go on forever,” he said. “I’m in the food business. People still got to eat.”
At the McLaughlin location, a take-out box model during the lockdown proved to work well. And once more restrictions were lifted and dine-in was allowed again, customers came out to eat. The Holdens were able to hire back almost all of their staff.
“People still need to socialize, especially when people can’t travel outside the bubble right now. We want to offer them a night out where they can forget about their day-to-day problems, forget about work for a night and just enjoy themselves,” Chris said.
Design Inspiration From Saint John
The interiors of both spaces were designed by Tuck Studio of Saint John. The Holdens met founder and creative director Judith Mackin there, sharing inspiration from the city of Montreal, Paris, and the French culture in general.
The Holdens want the space to feel warm, inviting and comfortable, and still have their personalities.
Mackin says her design was inspired by her travels to Europe, especially Paris. At Atelier, the walls are decorated with various floral and earthy-toned wallpapers and furniture, intimate lighting, and fireplaces.
“What I really wanted to do was for it to feel like when you were there, it would feel like you would if you were traveling in Paris or any European brasserie,” she said.
At the boulangerie, the wallpaper is colourful and bright. “It just feels cheery and alive,” Mackin said.
Mackin said Covid-19 has made the job interesting because she and colleague Joshua Hayes were only able to see the space once. For the rest, they’ve had to rely on Zoom meetings with the architects and engineers working in Moncton. Mackin only saw the space again once it was nearly finished a couple of weeks ago.
“I went up to assemble furniture and walked in to see the space as a customer would, and I wept,” she said. “Because when you’re working with a client in their space, you’re always seeing it every step of the way so you never have that a-ha moment. It was a pretty special thing to be on the receiving end of that.”
She says the Holdens are “particularly special” clients, too.
“It’s just astonishing to see how connected they are to each other, to their customers, and staying unified in how they’re moving forward,” she said.
Working with the family can be frustrating, but it’s also really rewarding, said Chris. It’s because they know each other so well that they work well as a team.
“We all have our strengths,” Tony says.
He’s the one with the pastry and bakery background, Jordan is the one into savoury foods, wife June runs the business side of the company, “keeping us in line with our spending,” while Chris plays photographer and food stylist on top of his managerial role. Then there’s Naketah Gallant, who came on board five years ago as front house manager, and is “considered part of the family.”
Overall, they have a team of 43. Now their team is set to grow again, with the hiring of 20 people already ongoing.