Bakery back with a bang

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Holladay » Bill Leslie has flown his chocolate-rum cake to Scotland and shipped his "honey babies" to Peru.

Luckily for his Utah customers, they don't have to travel that far to reach Leslie's new bakery.

After a seven-week closure, 34-year-old Leslie's French Pastries has reopened in Holladay -- less than a block from its original location.

"I've been going through withdrawal," patron Lori Stonebraker confesses as she orders a bag of pastries and bread. "It's been way too long."

The pastry shop had planned to move in July, during a traditional 10-day vacation closure, to make way for construction of the Holladay Village Center. But the relocation took place early after crews -- already at work burying power lines and reconfiguring the intersection of Holladay Boulevard, 2300 East and Murray-Holladay Road -- struck a pipe and caused a flood in the basement bakery.

Leslie and his father, who died several years ago, opened the business together in 1975. Alex Leslie, an immigrant, had worked as a confectioner in Scotland. The pair chose Holladay, below the now-closed Olympus Pharmacy, because it was minutes away from the family home.

"There wasn't a bakery around," recalls Bill Leslie, who now has competition from nearby Great Harvest and Normandie, which is relocating to 1932 E. Murray Holladay Road.

The business has become a favorite of many Holladay households.

"People around here can't have Christmas without a Danish ring," says Carolyn Holt, who has frosted and sprinkled cakes at the bakery for 20 years.

Customer Bob Featherstone has to have a Leslie's cake for his birthday -- and, well, for other days, too. Two decades ago, when he was living in California, his mother carried one on her lap when she came to visit.

"Chocolate rum," Featherstone says. "What else is there?"

The signature, rum-frosted chocolate cake has a pineapple filling.

Stonebraker knows the secret ingredient found in all of Leslie's baked goods: butter.

"You should be able to enjoy baked goods," she says, "because you know they're not full of hydrogenated oils and phony flavors."

She can't pick her favorite, but she loves the egg-twist bread for making French toast and the sausage-stuffed pastries for serving to house guests.

The new store features a more open, chic look than its basement predecessor. There are black-and-white, polka-dot drapes and a checkered floor to match. French accents, including an Eiffel Tower replica and a fleur-de-lis-bordered chalkboard, add a café-type atmosphere. Customers and bakers alike can enjoy large windows and lots of natural light.

"The light's just uplifting," Leslie says. "It makes you feel good."

Plus, he has a view of the work aimed at revitalizing Holladay: As early as fall 2010 the long-awaited village center could open with a string of new shops topped by condos or apartments. The old building that housed Leslie's bakery will be gone.

"People don't like change, but once it's done, it will be really nice," Leslie says. "You just have to be patient and, in time, it will be back to normal -- no, better than normal."

And, with more people bustling about in the village center, Leslie's can benefit from another one of the new location's advantages: visibility.

That could prove sweet for his bakery's business.

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