Bread Winner

Your diet resolution for counting carbs barely lasted a month − and practically made you a bread case when it comes to baked goods.

So you’ll want to be first in line at the new Fendu Boulangerie, opening today in Manoa Marketplace.

Owned by Niel Koep, the former executive pastry chef at Four Seasons Lana‘i, the bakery will offer a menu of pastries, desserts, sandwiches on fresh-baked breads, and pizzas on a unique crust that Koep developed from his European bread recipes. It’s thin, but substantial enough to stand up to toppings, and made to be baked in his hot stone oven.

Koep has another special oven, imported from France, that perfectly bakes the many varieties of breads on the menu, sold by the loaf and used on the gourmet sandwiches. There are sweet bread buns, French baguettes, cracked wheat Pullman bread, and a European style sourdough that’s less sour than the familiar San Francisco style.

But it’s the pastries that are Fendu’s daily bread and butter – like croissants, crumb cakes, turnovers, muffins and daily specials like banana chocolate danish and a lemon twist.

Sounds like a sweet place.

Fendu Boulangerie, Manoa Marketplace (near Longs), 808.988.4310, or for more info, call the Manoa Marketplace management office at 808.988.0520.