FiPS Preview: Du Jour Bakery

When Perch, the Fifth Ave brunch spot that many a Park Slope mommy thought of as a second home, shuttered at the end of last year, it was just another death in the long list of slightly-shocking 2011 Park Slope restaurant closings (see Aunt Suzie's, Tonio's).

As we head towards the end of summer 2012, Du Jour Bakery, a bakery & cafe run by pastry chefs TJ & Vera Obias, is just about ready to open up in the former Perch space. Will the aforementioned mommies flock back? Only time will tell.

Vera & TJ

It's the first space for TJ & Vera, a Park Slope couple who've been pastry chefs all over the city. Vera has worked at places like Dovetail & Buddakan (where she worked with Dale Talde, who she actually knows from back in the day in Chicago, before he went all Top Chef & shit). TJ spent time at Café Gray & at Morimoto, where he crossed paths with Talde. It's just another link in the ongoing game of Six Degrees of Separation that is the Park Slope restaurant scene.

TJ & Vera had been searching for a space to open up a bakery for the past two years, and eventually hooked up with the Perch space back in March.

With partner Tae Kyung, who oversaw the construction & design, they've built the space up over the past four months and are currently hiring a staff while waiting for the folks from the Department of Health to swing by & give them the OK to open. They expect to be up and running in the next two weeks, and were actually in a bit of a race with the Pork Slope dudes to see who would open first (it seems like the porkers might emerge victorious).

As the name suggests, they're focusing on baked goods that'll be made daily. As TJ mentioned, if he sees fresh strawberries at the market, he'll make something that day using them. Though he & Vera are trained as savory pastry chefs, they'll have both sweet & savory baked goods on the menu, alongside sandwiches, soups and hot & cold beverages. They'll be baking cornbread for Pork Slope, which I got to sample when I stopped by last week. While I'm not a huge cornbread advocate, theirs wasn't all that bad.

Though the interior space has undergone a few changes, it'll seat somewhere around the same as Perch did.

The backyard set-up is a little different from the Perch days & will seat sixteen.

Du Jour Bakery will be open everyday from 7am-7pm and will have wifi, so people can chill out with a latte & a slice of pie. As is pretty much a given for the hood, they'll be a family-friendly joint, but they've also applied for a liquor license so they can eventually serve drinks with brunch. After all, mommies need to drink too.

Du Jour Bakery, 365 5th Ave.

Read way more from Shawn at eatdrinksnack.com & eatdrinktaco.com.