June 17, 2015

La Boulange Is Closing - Is Anyone Really Surprised?


Here’s a tone-deaf announcement that slipped out last night while you were enjoying the Warriors win: Starbucks is closing all of its 23 La Boulange locations by this September, most of which are in the Bay Area.

Starbucks bought La Boulange in 2012 ostensibly to improve the foods options at $SBUX. While La Boulange’s pastries and breakfast sandwiches have reportedly helped grow it’s food sales (yes, the stock is up), the net result was that the food options at La Boulange also became very La Boring shortly after the Starbucks assimilation.

Still, Noe Valley residents are already mourning la Bou's passing (and Starbucks' questionable timing for the announcement):





So …Noe Valley will be losing a café in September. Here’s hoping an inspired new coffee shop or eatery moves quickly into the prime corner location that used to be a pizza joint.

Related: Speaking of cafés, earlier this year La PanotiQ announced it would be moving into the former Global Fair Exchange at 4108 24th Street in Spring 2015 and the location is still listed as coming soon on its website. But so far there’s been zero activity to revamp the space and no sign of progress. Perhaps they’ll look at the La Boulange space as a quicker fix.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In an SFGate story on the La Boulange closing there was a hint that previous owner Pascal Rigo may try to keep some of the SF stores and hoping the 24th St/Sanchez location is one of them so he can re elevate the quality of the pastries and food after the Starbucks degradation.

Anonymous said...

I really hope it stays open in the old La Boulange image which was great. I will miss it if it closes.