John Quiring. /K&S Media
Le Quartier Baking Company in Lincoln Nebraska. Owners and brothers Seth Quiring and head baker John Quiring excel at this Montreal style-artisan bakery with several locations in Lincoln and Omaha. Expect baguettes (plain and blue cheese), croissants, pain au chocolat, bread, and cronuts.
I walk into the small bakery, with the smell of fresh bread delightfully wafting in the air, while customers stare at pastries in glass displays, long, golden baguettes in straw baskets and rows of crusty artisan loaves. “We call ourselves a Montreal-style bakery which give us a license to be a little bit more North American in our baking style. We take an innovative approach to European classics,” says Seth Quiring, one part of the brother duo behind Le Quartier Baking Company in Lincoln.
Opened in 2006, the bakery and café turns out an impressive array of loaves, pastries and baked goods. The “talent behind the bakery” is John Quiring, an electrical engineer turned certified baker who has trained in Montreal and Paris. I spend time chatting with Seth about everything from opening day advice from his brother (“you’re going to need to toughen up”), to the 158 year old starter used in their dough.
I devour a breakfast croissant filled with egg, cheese avocado and tomato, the buttery and flaky dough crumbling between my fingers. “My mother always made everything, from bread to apple sauce. [When I was younger], I wanted to get canned applesauce because that was what all the other kids were eating, and only now do I realize how great that was— we had our own apples in our backyard,” remembers Seth. It’s just the sort of honest comment and homespun wisdom that sums up the heart of this bakery.
This article on Le Quartier Baking Company first appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of City Style and Living Magazine.
