Villeray’s Newest Bakery Is Milling Its Own Flour to Bake Bread For the People

Villeray has a grand new bakery, with an experienced baker committed to baking high-quality bread for locals.

Boulangerie Jarry is now open on the corner of St-Denis and Jarry, taking over a former bank (the bank’s vault door is actually still there, in the dining area).

It’s headed up by Dominique Gauvrit, a longtime professional baker with training in France. He helped to get Montreal success story Première Moisson off the ground in the ‘90s. He opened longstanding bakery locations including the Premiere Moisson on Bernard, in Outremont, working with the company for 10 years. (He left well before a majority stake in the bakery was purchased by grocery store Metro.)

While Gauvrit was out of the baking game for a while after that, he’s back — and with some major dedication to quality. Blessed with a large space, Boulangerie Jarry will produce its own flour almost every day, with bags of wheat ready for grinding. He’s joined by four bakers: Matthieu Lhomelet, Richard Mercier, Bobby Grégoire, and Mikael Legentilhomme.

There’s no white bread to be found here — Gauvrit tells Eater that he’s sticking to whole wheat.

“I want the bread to nourish people, I don’t want ‘empty’ food.”

That said, after grinding, the flour is sifted — so rather than sometimes-heavy pain intégrale, expect something a bit lighter.

Why mill on-site? Gauvrit says it’s partly for freshness, but also to give customers somewhat of a look behind the curtain.

“It allows them to see the raw materials, the grain, and the whole process of making the bread; it gives more of an understanding of where the products come from.”

The bakery will offer classics (baguettes, country-style round loaves), but Gauvrit says there’s room to experiment — for example, the “First peoples’ bread”, one loaf on offer recently, used ingredients Indigenous to Quebec, including pumpkin seeds and maize.

Beyond bread, Jarry is also offering classic viennoiseries, and some lunch-friendly, ready-to-eat options including sandwiches and pizza.

It’s not an all-singing, all-dancing affair, Gauvrit notes — it’s a matter of simplicity and quality.

“To make the bread you need the flour, water, salt, yeast, or sourdough and that’s it — it’s very simple.”

But there’s a social element too, and Gauvrit hopes he can offer that to the neighbourhood.

“The best bread is emotive, it’s sensual...bread has a way of bringing people together.”

STATUS — Boulangerie Jarry is open at 8090 St-Denis from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.

• Boulangerie Jarry [Facebook]