Pandor Artisan Boulangerie & Café, a European-style bakery offers tantalizing French goodies and artisan breads, is now open at Westcliff Plaza
by Griffin Rogers
Pandor Artisan Boulangerie & Café recently opened its first 2,000-square foot store in Orange County at Westcliff Plaza in Newport Beach. The 30-seat eatery offers a culinary experience influenced by European cuisine.
The café specializes in French artisan breads, paninis, salads, pastries, tartines and Viennoiseries. Each item is made with the focus of using sustainable, local and seasonal ingredients.
Owners Raffi and Tiffany Sepetjian came up with the concept for the café after taking multiple trips to France. Even the restaurant’s name, Pandor, evolved from the French expression Pain d’Or, which means golden bread.
In order to keep their menu authentic, the Sepetjians recruited Julien Pietravalle, a French master baker, to oversee the bread-making process. Two other French chefs, Eric Cuenin and Serge Bertrand, were hired to supervise the creation of the pastries and various menu items.
“My husband and I have always loved to travel, and France has been a favorite destination of ours. Now, with three children, we find it hard to go to Europe to satiate our desire for authentic French baked goods,” said Tiffany Sepetjian. “Our goal is to create a distinct brand that revolves around – at its core – producing great bread. The artisan bread takes center stage – with traditional offerings such as French Galette Bressane, or, at Pandor, Le Saint Maxine – as a full café comes together around it.”
While Pandor may just now be opening, its wholesale counterpart, RTR Bakery, has been supplying O.C. residents with artisan-baked goods since 2011, and provides servicese to several local restaurants, including The Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar, Brasserie Pascal and Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine.
