Jeannot’s is quite new and in fact is still in “soft opening” mode, with hours from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. It’s in the Atlas Valley Shopping Center at 95th and Arapahoe (2770 Arapahoe Rd., Suite 124), where Lunada used to be. It’s a pleasant space with a nice patio. The woman who took our order told us that the pastries are all baked in house, but they are not able to bake bread because of the limited kitchen space (apparently they have been getting a lot of inquiries about French bread!).
Jeannot’s is owned by Julien and Teresa Jeannot. Julien is
from Provence and, after years of working
at various restaurants in Europe, Canada, and the US, most recently was the executive
pastry chef for the Mediterranean group in Boulder. I got this info from the website,
but he was serving pastries when we went through the line, and it was nice to
hear the man in front of us talking to Julien in French because we could
pretend that we were in France for a moment.
I’m running a bit behind on my reports again because I
actually visited this place almost a week ago, last Saturday. I was meeting my
friend Deb to celebrate my birthday with a breakfast excursion. We thought 8 a.m.
on a Saturday would be a nice quiet time, but it was actually fairly busy,
although the line moved quickly. We decided to take our food back to my house
to eat it.
Deb ordered quiche Lorraine, which came with a side of
greens, and I got the croissant sandwich (1 slice of ham, 1 slice of cheese,
and scrambled eggs on a croissant), which came with a side of fruit. We wanted
to try the pastries too, so Deb got a lemon croissant, which was a sort of
open-scheme croissant filled with lemon and topped with fresh berries, and I
got a chocolate croissant.
We both liked our food very much! The croissants were flaky
and buttery, just as they should be, and I thought the proportion of egg to ham
and cheese in my sandwich was about right. I also thought the fruit was amazing—I
would like to know where they buy their berries! Deb wasn’t sure at first about
the large chunks of ham in the quiche; she initially thought it should be diced
finer, but she ended up deciding she liked it that way. G had already eaten
breakfast, but he split the chocolate croissant with me, and we both thought it
was delicious. The amount of chocolate was just about right, and it was
distributed in several smaller pockets instead of one big slab. None of us had ever
seen a lemon croissant like this before, but Deb said it was fabulous. She went
back a few days later to try an apple tart and rated it “amazing.” She also let
me know that Wednesday at 9 a.m. was a nice quiet time to stop in.
There will now be a brief hiatus in the LRP Redux because I’m
currently out of town and won’t be back until March 31, but I should be able to
wrap up the last few in April. When I will also be revisiting Jeannot’s to try
more things from the pastry case. Incidentally, I forgot to photograph the pastry
case, so if anyone has a photo of it, pop it into the comments!
* Lafayette Restaurant Project Redux: visiting all the new places that have opened since the end of the previous round of the LRP.
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| Top left: Croissant sandwich with scrambled egg, ham, and cheese and a side of fruit; top right: quiche Lorraine with side of greens and lemon croissant; bottom: chocolate croissant. |
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| Jeannot's on a sunny but chilly Saturday morning |
