When Samuel Alves came to Dallas, he realized that no place served the buttery croissants and crispy baguettes so loved in Europe and his native Portugal. In 1976, Samuel opened La Française French Bakery as a retail storefront in Lake Highlands. This was the first authentic French bakery in Dallas, and it introduced real croissants to DFW. Customers lined up to buy the flaky treats and hearty artisan breads.
In the early days, as now, La Française used only real butter, fresh eggs, and whole milk. With the hiring of a pastry chef, the bakery’s products expanded to include French pastries and cakes and opening three additional locations in Metroplex.
La Française also began selling baked goods to wholesale customers. In 1996 the bakery closed its retail outlets to focus solely on wholesale baking. La Française quickly outgrew its first production facility and in 2001 moved to its current location.
Today, Chris Alves and his wife, Lisa, operate La Française French Bakery.
Bakery Wholesaler
La Française French Bakery honors its roots as Dallas’ first authentic French bakery by continuing the old-world traditions that have resulted in outstanding baked goods since 1976.
The bakery uses an all-natural process with only the finest ingredients, like Pelugra butter and King Arthur Flour, and no coloring or preservatives in its bread. La Française takes the time required to produce extraordinary breads, with some products cold-proofed for up to 12 hours. La Française’s breads are all fully baked.
La Française produces a variety of mixes for its bread, such as Pain Au Lait, French, Rustic, Whole Wheat, and Sourdough. Depending upon the bread mix, worker hand shapes the dough into baguettes, batards, boules, buns, and rolls.
With a bakery that has been in existence as long as La Française, the sourdough bread evolves over time to develop a depth of flavor that can only be achieved with a mature starter. The bakery’s starter is over 26 years old and is used to produce more than 10 different products. Other ingredients, such as olives, sundried tomatoes, cheese, fruit, and nuts are added to create our specialty sourdough products:
Head Baker
Jean Christophe Blanc joined La Française as head baker in 1999. His considerable expertise allowed the bakery to transform its bread production from simple white, to sourdough, rye, whole wheat, and other specialty breads. He has since created several products.
While the accomplished baker has a light hand with almost any baked good, Jean Christophe’s specialty is the baguette. His display the crisp crust, slight chew and creamy vanilla color that are hallmarks of an authentic French baguette.