In the spring Breanne Kostyk will open Flour Moon Bagels at 2606 St. Louis St. on the Lafitte Greenway I have followed this extremely talented baker for years and it is inspiring to witness her dream coming true. Breanne acquired a degree in design from the Pratt Institute at the height of the Great Recession then joined Project M, a program employing creatives to benefit social change, placing them throughout the country. Her team ended up in impoverished Greensboro, Ala., where they were asked to build something—they did not know what, that was their challenge—that would unify people. They settled on pie. No matter that Breanne had never baked a pie in her life. PieLab, a combination pop-up cafe, design studio, and civic clubhouse, was a successful in unifying a community around slices of pie and conversation and Breanne discovered she preferred making pie over working as a designer. She has been the Pastry Chef at the New Orleans’s Ace Hotel .since it opened in 2016.
She started Flour Moon Bagels in the spring of 2020 when she was home recovering from a double mastectomy to treat breast cancer. She built a following through her Instagram account, working first from her home then after hours in the Ace Hotel kitchen late on Saturday nights and very early on Sunday mornings to fulfill orders. Things really took off when she started a weekly pop-up at Coffee Science in Mid-City. I cannot even get my head around the volume of work she was doing—essentially two full-time jobs—while recovering from cancer.
Breanne’s bagel repertoire includes the Everything, pumpernickel, rosemary sea salt, sesame, poppyseed, pumpernickel, rosemary or sage sea salt, whole wheat; za’atar, cacio e pepe, onion and sumac, and cranberry sage. Flour Moon Bagels will serve breakfast and lunch.
Another fantastically talented woman, Chef Dwynesha Lavigne has opened Deelightful Roux, a hands-on interactive cooking school at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum. It is appropriate that the launch of the school coincides with the beginning of Black History Month. Deelightful Roux is the only African American owned cooking school being taught in New Orleans by a NOLA native. Cooking classes are offered each Monday, Thursday, and Friday from 11a.m. – 1 p.m. Classes, capped at 10 people maximum, focus on Creole and Cajun dishes and include a 3-course lunch, admission to the museum and a curator-led private tour of the museum. Beer and wine are available for purchase. To register for a class, click here.
New Orleans-based Joy the Baker, is having a very hot moment right now as the internet’s favorite baking instructor/author. She has teamed up with Delicacies, a food-oriented jewelry company dedicated to fighting hunger, to debut a sweet strawberry necklace that makes a perfect gift for Valentine’s Day. The necklace is available in silver ($70), rose gold ($80), and gold ($80). At Joy’s request Delicacies will donate $10 from every purchase to Second Harvest New Orleans. One $10 donation translates to forty meals for people in need. Additionally, everyone who purchases Joy the Baker’s strawberry necklace will receive a copy of her recipe for Grilled Strawberry Shortcake. A sweet deal!
Edit note: anyone who uses code “joythebaker15” gets 15% off the entire Delicacies site!
After a long wait, next Thursday (February 3) from 4-9 p.m. the Wetlands Sake Taproom will open to the public with a spacious outdoor patio complete with a large stage, pergolas, and plenty of outdoor seating. Wetlands Sake is available in filtered, unfiltered, and sparkling varieties and the LSU Agriculture Center grows a specialty short grain rice specifically for use in this New Orleans-based sake brewery, which is owned by natives Nan Wallis and Lindsey Brower. The schedule for next Thursday’s event is as follows: Crawfish Boil @4 p.m. til; The Commissary Pop-up 4-8:30 p.m.; Dim Sum Pop-up 4-7 p.m.; Music- Soul Brass Band 6-8 p.m. Small batch sakes will be available on tap including cocktail-inspired infusions. Wetlands Sake will be releasing its new Sparkling King Cake Sake at the event.
Let’s hear it for the women of New Orleans who are making things happen! Have a momentous week.
