Rising to the Occasion
New Orleans pastry chef Kaitlin Guerin has come a long way since impulsively starting culinary school in 2017. While exploring new ways to express her creativity, the trained contemporary dancer honed in on another passion—baking.
In 2020, Guerin started Lagniappe Bakehouse, formerly Lagniappe Baking Co., a cottage bakery known for pastry pop-ups, curated pastry boxes, and small-batch baked goods. During the pandemic, her home doubled as an industrial kitchen and walk-up shop where customers could pick up orders from the bakehouse window, stocking up on baked delicacies while socially distancing.
Four years later, the 32-year-old chef grew her home business into a cozy brick-and-mortar bakery tucked away in Central City off of Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard.
Guerin opened the Lagniappe Bakehouse storefront in September 2024. The space is equally as vintage and charming as it is modern and elevated. The walk to the bakery is an experience in itself. To enter, guests walk through a romantic gate and into an open courtyard canopied under a tree. Inside, every corner of the space is thoughtfully styled and designed. Nods to Guerin and her business and life partner Lino Asana's African ancestors are sprinkled throughout the bakery with African art and plant holders. The interior design has a clean aesthetic with lime-washed walls, white marble countertops, hardwood floors, and splashes of earth tones on light fixtures, paint colors, furniture, and art.
A large brown oil and charcoal painting, The Night Before by Jamaican-born artist Lenworth "Joonbug" McIntosh, anchors the bakery. "Joonbug" also hand-painted the tiles on the front counter. Select tiles feature storytelling mini artworks including paintings of a watermelon, a woman singing and playing the tambourine, and a portrait of Oretha Castle Haley, a New Orleans civil rights leader whom the bakery's connecting street is named after.
"The more I understood what this neighborhood is, what it means to me, and what we wanted to build, the better suited we felt like we were in the space," Guerin said about Central City. "Being a very Black-owned space, what we're trying to highlight, the work I'm trying to do, it felt right to have a voice here."
Guerin's culinary creations meet in the intersection of Southern foodways, West African roots, French influences, and seasonal offerings. She serves a breakfast-centric menu with various rotating croissant flavors, cakes, cookies, shortbreads, buns, muffins, and tarts. There are local collaborations throughout the menu including coffee beans from Mammoth Coffee, chocolate from Piety and Desire Chocolate in the Tanzanian Pain au Chocolat croissants, and Vaucresson's Creole Cafe & Deli's hot sausage in The Vaucroissant, a sausage lattice croissant.
The flaky croissants boast expert-level lamination and unreal buttery insides with honeycomb-like patterns. The flavor choices are far from average, yet have a sense of Southern familiarity.
The display case includes slices of Basque sweet potato cheesecake with cocoa benne crust and pieces of Gateau Breton-NOLA, a twist on French shortbread cake with stone-milled flour and rich pecan butter filling. The bakery's benne toffee cookies, made with African benne seeds, are another fan favorite. There are desserts for customers with food restrictions, as well, including the flourless chocolate candied kumquats.
After getting slammed with pie orders for Thanksgiving, Guerin is bracing herself for Mardi Gras, one of her busiest seasons. She has been selling king cakes for the last five years. Every year, the highly sought-after king cakes are almost guaranteed to sell out. Guerin opens a limited amount of pre-ordering options before Mardi Gras season and offers a select number of cakes to be picked up at the shop.
These aren't just any king cakes. For the first half of the Mardi Gras season, Guerin makes galettes des rois, a classic Northern French-style king cake, made with spiced almond-based frangipane, candied citrus, and whiskey-soaked cranberries wrapped in a round laminated and scored puff pastry. She starts candying citrus, such as navel oranges, lemons, and satsumas, months in advance. The second half of the season, Guerin whips up the traditional Southern French-style king cakes New Orleanians know and love. Guerin puts her twist on the Mardi Gras staple by making sourdough brioche king cakes with an African alligator pepper spice and seasonal fruit filling such as strawberry or citrus, topped with condensed milk frosting and festive sprinkles.
"I've always enjoyed king cakes and the tradition around them," Guerin said. "I lived away from New Orleans for almost 10 years, and I missed king cakes so much. It doesn't taste the same if it's not in New Orleans."
At the time of the interview, Guerin was in the process of obtaining her liquor license. She plans to eventually expand her menu to include small bites and wine pairings, allowing her to extend the bakery hours. As she gets more rooted in her brick-and-mortar, she also plans to host events and further establish the bakehouse as a gathering space for the community.
Kaitlin Guerin is proving that Lagniappe Bakehouse is more than just a bakery. It's a celebration of culture, tradition, and community. From her signature croissants to her sought-after king cakes, Guerin has created a space that feels as welcoming and creative as her culinary creations. As she continues to expand, Lagniappe Bakehouse is poised to become a cornerstone of Central City and a beacon for pastry lovers in New Orleans and beyond.
Lagniappe Bakehouse is open Thursday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is closed Monday to Wednesday. It is located at 1825 Euterpe St.
