http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2009/01/09/towns/vernon/doc4967839048bf4945504194.txt
VERNON — The La Brioche Bakery, a former Stafford staple, is now
sharing its tarts, cakes, and croissants with locals at its new home in
downtown Rockville.
Owner Colette Berube found what she said she hopes will be a familiar spot to
residents when she moved into the early home of Boston Bakery at 36 Ward St.
in early December.
After spats with landlords and moving around Stafford in several
locations for nearly 30 years, Berube said she feels the bakery has found a
comfortable and friendly home in downtown Rockville.
Undeterred by today’s economic climate, she’s buoyed by the support of
local customers and a healthy joie de vivre.
“I’m pulling the devil by the tail to make the ends meet,” said
Berube, a Vernon resident who came to Connecticut from France in the winter
of 1954 when she was 19. “But if you’re scared, you can’t do anything.
“People have to eat,” she added.
She said she’s eager to share her love of baking and bread with locals,
even though business has begun slowly.
The bakery is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 8
a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. It is closed on Mondays.
Berube said winter weather has forced her to shut down a few days during the
last month, but, she said, she hopes folks soon will start filing in to
fulfill their urge to eat, especially on those cold days.
She prides herself in a minimalist and pure approach to baking — the bread
is enough, she said.
“Bread is the stuff of life,” she said. “And everybody tells me I have
the best bread.”
In 1986, shortly after Berube took over as chef, she said she developed a
love of baking when she was a child and she and her mother baked bread and
other goods in an outdoor brick oven behind her house.
“Baking is just like writing a song,” she said back then. There is no
way to describe the feeling of seeing something you’ve created grow in the
oven and then watch people eat it.”
