Bellecour Bakery Expands to St. Paul in Its Latest Partnership With Cooks of Crocus Hill

Proving its pandemic-era partnership is here to stay, Minneapolis’s beloved bakery Bellecour and cookware company Cooks of Crocus Hill team up on a second shop-within-shop on Grand Avenue in St. Paul this month.

The Bellecour and Cooks of Crocus Hill collaboration that started as a pop-up pivot last summer quickly became a North Loop favorite-turned-permanent fixture. When Bellecour’s James Beard Award-winning chef Gavin Kaysen and pastry chef Diane Moua brought their French-inspired baked goods into Cooks of Crocus Hill’s Minneapolis location, lines stretched down the block for their laminated croissants, Moua’s ultra-popular crepe cakes, and unpretentious sandwiches.

Its latest collab, tucked inside Cooks’s flagship location in St. Paul (877 Grand Avenue), opens Thursday, August 12, with favorites like pastries, wraps, salads, and crepe cakes to go along with freshly brewed coffee and espresso drinks daily. Opening hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and weekends from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and until 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Cooks of Crocus Hill owners Karl and Marie Dwyer welcomed the Bellecour team into their space in July 2020. Pastries were originally schlepped from Bellecour Bakery and Café’s Wayzata location. But when Kaysen’s French restaurant closed there amidst the pandemic last summer after a 3-year run, production moved into Cooks’s sprawling kitchen space in North Loop. The site doubles as classroom arena in the evenings.

The bakery’s hit raspberry frangipane, which hasn’t made an appearance since Bellecour folded in Wayzata, will make a comeback at the new St. Paul locale for a month.

Bellecour/official photo

Cooks’s retail flagship has sat in St. Paul for almost five decades, outfitted with a specialty deli counter and grab-and-go food offerings. The deli didn’t quite catch on, and the shop was reconfigured to allow for more retail space.

In order to accommodate Bellecour, the Dwyers resurrected the original layout, placing the bakery at the heart of the shop where the deli once stood. The new grab-and-go stand will also accept preorders online.

Libby Anderson/Bellecour

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