On The Rise: 30 Years and Pain D’Avignon is Still Piping Hot!
The conversation in our house often goes like this: Person A: “I was looking online at the Grand Canyon for our winter vacation, what do you think?” Person B: “Sounds great. What kind of restaurants are nearby?” In this situation, Person A and Person B are interchangeable. Ali’s and my shared wanderlust is only eclipsed by our “eaterlust,” which means that our travels are dictated by the art of finding excellent food experiences. We’ve booked vacations around great restaurants, traveled hours out of our way for a coveted cafe or bakery, and our equally low threshold of driving past a favorite eatery has completely derailed many well-intended afternoons of errand running. These attributes are in part why writing for this publication has been a perfect fit for me over the last 14 years, and why I jumped at the opportunity to check in with one of Cape Cod’s most well-loved businesses, Pain D’Avignon.
The bakery origins of Pain D’Avignon (PDA) date back almost 30 years to 1992, when Belgrade-born Vojin Vujosevic teamed up with childhood friends Uliks Fehmu, Bane Stamenkovic and Igor Ivanovic and baked in a small building off Main Street in Hyannis. A friend, who owned a well-established wholesale pasta company, started introducing the duo’s baked products to his clients, and the French-inspired bakery took off faster than the Concorde. Eventually, needing more square footage to keep up with the delivery and wholesale demand, they relocated to a much larger building on Airport Road, a service road running behind the Barnstable Municipal Airport. The bakery’s popularity, like its growing list of baked goods, was accelerating rapidly thanks to a superb product and a booming economy, until a fire destroyed the building in 2007 and left the bakery’s business accounts in ashes. But it’s within those devastating crossroads that major life decisions must be made. After taking some time to regroup, Vujosevic decided to make a trifecta of a move, one he considered equal parts bold, dangerous and smart. He decided to rebuild the bakery as quickly as possible, but this time into a dizzying 22,000-square-foot building even closer to the airport, at its present 15 Hinckley Road location. The new property could house the baking and wholesale end of the business, as well as a full-service retail counter for walk-in business and a few corporate offices. Vujosevic wanted to add one more element to his life-long dream, thinking that the addition of a cafe would be really cool, but not cool enough without French wines to pour, so the cafe concept morphed into a bistro. Now the irrepressible Vujosevic needed the right person to oversee such an operation.
Recently relocated to Cape Cod from Los Angeles, hospitality dynamo Mario Mariani was the General Manager of a fine dining restaurant in Yarmouth Port that many Cape Codders might remember fondly, Abbicci. He was also an avid tennis player. Vojin Vujosevic had recently lived through a trauma and loss of business. His booming bakery had all but burned to the ground, and he was in the midst of a complete reinvention of himself and his business. He too was a net and racquet guy. Upon stopping by Abbicci, a client of the bakery, Mariani and Vujosevic struck up a conversation about tennis, which turned into a friendly match. The match, in turn, turned into a friendship and that friendship quickly spun into an amazing business opportunity — one in which Mariani could be invaluable — as the Chief Operating Officer of a sleek new French restaurant and bakery. Pain D’Avignon Restaurant- Boulangerie opened in May of 2008 to rave reviews, and continued with the traditions that were started by Vujosevic and his Serbian baking brethren so many years ago. Overseen by another of Vujosevic’s childhood friends (and brother of Bane Stamenkovic), Toma Stamenkovic, the bakery used only the highest quality ingredients, such as organic sugars, pure wildflower honey, sea salts and Greek extra virgin olive oils. The bistro highlighted both baked goods from the bakery, as well as the freshest local ingredients the chef could use over the course of four seasons. PDA relied heavily on local farms to keep their menus as fresh as possible, teaming up with the likes of Surrey Farms in Brewster, Tuckernuck Farm in West Dennis, and Barnstable’s Cape Cod Organic Farm. In the summer of 2015, Chef Christophe Gest came on board and went all in, starting his first shift at PDA on a Saturday night...on July 4th. Gest continues to put out some of the best food the bistro has ever served.
Eventually the walls of the bistro expanded, most recently adding a stunning new dining room complete with a long chef ‘s table under a sparkling chandelier, and an outdoor dining area complete with warm afternoon shade umbrellas and heaters for the cooler months. Always striving for that French bistro authenticity, they brought in more help from the other side of the pond.
Pain D’Avignon’s wholesale business continued to expand, eventually reaching all parts of New England, as well as New York City. With products being distributed to some of the highest-regarded retail shops and restaurants throughout the New York metro area, it was decided that the Pain D’Avignon cafe concept should reach beyond its humble beginnings on Hinckley Road in Hyannis. Opened under the watchful eyes of Uliks Fehmu and Bane Stamenkovic, a second 10,000-square-foot baking facility opened in Long Island City, and it feeds seven Cafe d’Avignon locations throughout New York City, including iconic hot spots like Brooklyn’s Dekalb Market Food Hall, Essex Street Market, the upscale food court at The Plaza Hotel and at The Moxy Hotel in Times Square.
Even as the cafes are supplied from the facility outside Long Island City, the original concept of the bakery as makers and bakers of hand-crafted artisan breads still holds true, as much as possible. “Making artisan breads is a dying art form,” Mariani explains. “Pain D’Avignon has always been about quality control. Even as we get bigger and expand into other markets, we still create our product in small batches. Of course, it’s impossible to create every single bread by hand. With the growing demand we keep a 70/30 ratio, meaning 70 percent of what we put out is still literally in the hands of our bakers while we need to rely 30 percent on giant mixers to get our product into everyone’s stores and restaurants.” The 70/30 ratio is a valiant effort to keep true to the Pain D’Avignon concept, and the individual cafes will operate in much the same manner, with mixers and ovens appearing in each store, assuring that, although much of the product will be brought in fresh from the nearby baking facility, much of the cafes’ products are made in-house.
With between 250 and 300 accounts throughout New England (the numbers depend on individual business seasonality) and supplying Michelin-starred restaurants and top-rated hotels between New York and Boston, the little bakery from Cape Cod has been slowly, carefully and most deliberately turning into a Goliath. Clients now include familiar New England institutions such as M.I.T., Boston College, Harvard and Gillette Stadium (during football season), to mom-and-pop-owned delicatessens and also chains like Whole Foods, Shaw’s and Stop & Shop. Most recently, Major Food Group (MFG) has latched on to Pain D’Avignon and is featuring their products in a growing number of the MFG restaurants. Founded by three culinary juggernauts, Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick, MFG is considered one of the fastest-growing and well-respected hospitality groups in the United States, operating 21 restaurants since its inception less than a decade ago. It’s no surprise that they want such a quality product associated with their restaurants. “As PDA continues to grow in the marketplace, quality control is our biggest challenge and also our steadfast commitment,” explains Mariani. “We are still able to put large amounts of product out, but we still do so in many small batches. As demand grew beyond our direct store delivery range and now with nationwide capabilities, we needed to ensure that wherever our product was shipped, it would arrive as fresh and as aromatic as if they were taken right out of our stone hearth, deck ovens. This is where the world of cryogenics comes in.” Pain D’Avignon made a large financial investment in state-of-the-art, Irinox brand blast freezers. “When fresh breads and pastries are giving out those amazing aromas and flavors they are actually at the end of their lives,” Mariani continues. “When you bite into something that’s fresh it’s one of the best sensations in the world. As the product sits on a shelf, the aromas go away and the taste starts to break down. By getting our products into these flash freezers, hot out of the oven — capturing a moment in time — we are ensuring that consumers living outside of New England can still enjoy that same oven freshness and magical aromas.” Flash freezing has its health benefits as well, as it stops the spread of bacteria. Bacteria grow in a certain temperature range (40°F-140°F), but because food that is blast-chilled goes through that high-risk temperature range rapidly, bacteria has no time to reproduce.
To oversee Pain D’Avignon’s growth and cafe expansions, Mariani brought another French countryman into the PDA fold, Gilles Heron from Cannes.
Just before the pandemic hit, a Cafe D”Avignon was born in Orlando, Florida. “The Orlando property was to be the first of many Cafe d’Avignons beyond the Northeast, but we had to take a step back due to the pandemic,” Mariani explains. But plans for growing the new franchise are underway again, and it’s predicted that 40-50 new cafes will be thriving within the next four to five years. Also underway is yet another expansion at the Hinckley Road location. Taking over another 5000 square feet of warehouse space means there will be room for a state-of-the-art coffee roaster, a new “PDA Gourmet” brand, and plenty of retail space to sell specialty gourmet items, from cheeses, oils, jams and sauces to PDA’s breads, pastries and even beer and wine. At the forefront will be their new coffee blend, made from fair trade South American beans.
PDA has also sharpened their focus for the past two years on sourcing wheats from all over the planet and baking breads from these wheats both in their New York and Cape Cod facilities. These ancient grains, which date back thousands of years, are pure, tasty, rich in nutrients, and biodynamically linked to their terroir. “We’re going back to the future, literally,” Mariani explains. “Gilles Heron has worked for some of the greatest bakers in Europe, who all know the best farmers. He’s using his connections to import some of the finest, healthiest and tastiest grains known to mankind from smaller wheat growing regions.” Some of the grains such as Spelt are familiar but many, such as Einkorn and Kamut, not so much. Descendants of these grains such as Khorasan, Blanc de Noe, Barbu du Roussillon, and Population (a mixture of wheats grown like a field of wildflowers) are also being used. Mariani gets very passionate when he starts talking about the often-irresponsible practices of big businesses and modern global farming techniques. “These are techniques of creating too fast and using poor quality ingredients. Growing up in France, Gilles didn’t know about unhealthy white bread. Growing up in the United States as a boy, I knew only one kid who had an allergy to gluten. Now, fifty years later, it’s become a major global issue. It’s almost impossible to break down the gluten molecule and it’s creating poison in people. We need to get back to the future of bread making and Pain D’Avignon feels responsible to ignite the interest.” Whether the grains come from the United States, Canada, Mesopotamia, Eastern Europe, Southern France, or the rest of the world, these wheats have a taste profile that, as Mariani insists, is incomparable. “The farmers we work with have a deep respect for the environment, nurturing organic agriculture. Our millers transform the grain into flour by slowly following time-honored methods. Our bakers utilize ancestral techniques by employing only leaven, no yeasts, emphasizing long fermentations with a slow careful rise. Then, they bake these loaves to perfection in stone hearth ovens. This meticulous process ensures a fully developed crumb and breads that are full of aroma and goodness.”
With expansions in square footage, additional baking facilities, creative fine dining options, and soon-to-be franchising, it’s easy to see what is behind Pain D’Avignon’s longevity. It’s the same main ingredient that launched the once-small business off Main Street, Hyannis: a deep devotion to quality. As big as PDA has become, it’s showing no signs of slowing down. With almost three decades behind them, we look forward to enjoying the fruits (and breads) of Pain D’Avignon’s labors for decades to come.
Tom Dott is a self-proclaimed slave to the hospitality industry. He and his partner Ali Pitcher previously owned and operated the Lamb and Lion Inn in Barnstable, as well as a AAA 4-Diamond Relais & Chateaux property in New York’s Hudson Valley. Tom has won three national Eddy awards and is a two-time runner up. For info on his freelance hospitality writing visit www.TommyDott.com.
Pain D’Avignon
15 Hinkley Road, Hyannis
508-778-8588 – Bistro
508-771-9771 – Wholesale
paindavignon.com
PDA has also sharpened their focus for the past two years on sourcing wheats from all over the planet and baking breads from these wheats both in their New York and Cape Cod facilities. These ancient grains, which date back thousands of years, are pure, tasty, rich in nutrients, and biodynamically linked to their terroir. “We’re going back to the future, literally,” Mariani explains. “Gilles Heron has worked for some of the greatest bakers in Europe, who all know the best farmers. He’s using his connections to import some of the finest, healthiest and tastiest grains known to mankind from smaller wheat growing regions.” Some of the grains such as Spelt are familiar but many, such as Einkorn and Kamut, not so much. Descendants of these grains such as Khorasan, Blanc de Noe, Barbu du Roussillon, and Population (a mixture of wheats grown like a field of wildflowers) are also being used. Mariani gets very passionate when he starts talking about the often-irresponsible practices of big businesses and modern global farming techniques. “These are techniques of creating too fast and using poor quality ingredients. Growing up in France, Gilles didn’t know about unhealthy white bread. Growing up in the United States as a boy, I knew only one kid who had an allergy to gluten. Now, fifty years later, it’s become a major global issue. It’s almost impossible to break down the gluten molecule and it’s creating poison in people. We need to get back to the future of bread making and Pain D’Avignon feels responsible to ignite the interest.” Whether the grains come from the United States, Canada, Mesopotamia, Eastern Europe, Southern France, or the rest of the world, these wheats have a taste profile that, as Mariani insists, is incomparable. “The farmers we work with have a deep respect for the environment, nurturing organic agriculture. Our millers transform the grain into flour by slowly following time-honored methods. Our bakers utilize ancestral techniques by employing only leaven, no yeasts, emphasizing long fermentations with a slow careful rise. Then, they bake these loaves to perfection in stone hearth ovens. This meticulous process ensures a fully developed crumb and breads that are full of aroma and goodness.”
With expansions in square footage, additional baking facilities, creative fine dining options, and soon-to-be franchising, it’s easy to see what is behind Pain D’Avignon’s longevity. It’s the same main ingredient that launched the once-small business off Main Street, Hyannis: a deep devotion to quality. As big as PDA has become, it’s showing no signs of slowing down. With almost three decades behind them, we look forward to enjoying the fruits (and breads) of Pain D’Avignon’s labors for decades to come.
Tom Dott is a self-proclaimed slave to the hospitality industry. He and his partner Ali Pitcher previously owned and operated the Lamb and Lion Inn in Barnstable, as well as a AAA 4-Diamond Relais & Chateaux property in New York’s Hudson Valley. Tom has won three national Eddy awards and is a two-time runner up. For info on his freelance hospitality writing visit www.TommyDott.com.
Pain D’Avignon
15 Hinkley Road, Hyannis
508-778-8588 – Bistro
508-771-9771 – Wholesale
paindavignon.com
