Courtesy Far Breton Bakery
The Far Breton Bakery trailer outside Homestead Shoppes.
Madison west-siders will have a chance to try some Breton-based sweet treats closer to home this winter.
Far Breton Bakery, which has a brick-and-mortar location on Fordem Avenue, has started a regular pop-up shop out of a small trailer at 6150 Mineral Point Road near the Homestead Shoppes.
For Marie-Arzel Young, owner and founder of Far Breton, this is an opportunity to bring her baked goods to a wider audience.
“That was our idea behind a west side pop-up, to expand our reach,” she says. “It can be a little bit of a hassle to come all the way across town during the wintertime.”
Young has a staff of about 10 at the Fordem location, but will operate the pop-up solo, with a potential helper on Sundays.
The pop-up started Nov. 6 and will be open 7 a.m. to noon Wednesdays and 8:30 a.m. to noon Sundays (closed the week of Christmas and the first week of January) until March 16, when Young gears up to head back to Dane County Farmers’ Market on the Capitol Square.
Far Breton is named for a type of baked custard from Brittany usually made with prunes or raisins. Most but not all of the store’s bakery options will be available at the pop-up location, including favorites like the croissant noir — a croissant made of chocolate and espresso dough — and kouign-amann, literally “butter cake,” a round, sugary pastry similar to a morning bun. The bakery also sells coffee from Madison’s Rusty Dog Coffee Roasters.
The Fordem Avenue location, once the home of New Orleans Take-Out, recently underwent renovations and added a sit-down cafe. Fresh crepes for eating in are a new menu addition.
“Now customers have a seating area, and they can decide whether they want a cooked order,” Young says. “And they can get their coffee and enjoy our beautiful space.”
The bakery will also sell Thanksgiving and Christmas treats for the holidays, which customers can pre-order on its website.
Young opened the bakery as a mobile operation in 2019, selling out of a trailer at the Northside Farmers’ Market and elsewhere; she opened the Fordem Avenue location in 2022.
Young says Far Breton bakery has grown every year since its founding, but growth has finally stabilized. “It's been a serious challenge to stay on top of rising food costs and other expenses for the bakery,” Young says. “I’m using my skills learned from the pandemic era to keep sales strong.”
