New French bakery L'eclair offering dreamy eclairs and chocolate tarts opens in Pudsey

L'eclair Patisserie opened at the site of a former gym in Swinnow Grange Mills, Stanningley Road, last week.

Head baker Alexandra Slavin, a former chef at French restaurant Sous Le Nez, excitedly welcomed in customers after eight months of renovating the building.

The shop front, which has a small seating area, sells a selection of cakes, coffee and patisserie goods - as well as supplying to restaurants, cafes and garden centres in Yorkshire.

“Our main sell is eclairs," Alexandra told the Yorkshire Evening Post.

“Everything we do is handmade and we offer big gateaux and tarts. This weekend we had a black cherry frangipane and a dark chocolate and peanut butter tart which went down really well.

“We’re hoping to start doing bread soon and we have a vegan offering. It’s a great offering which just happens to be vegan, rather than something that’s a bit sad and the only option you get.”

The bakery was funded by Sous Le Nez's dine-at-home boxes, which were a hit with Leeds customers during the pandemic.

The restaurant's head chef, Steve Thompson, bought the site in February this year - and Alexandra was tasked with getting it up and running.

The 27-year-old added: “The restaurant manager from Sous Le Nez built this place from scratch, which is amazing.

“He built the counter from packing crates, ripped the wood from the sauna to make a coffee bar and there’s a beautiful wooden floor made from fence posts.

“Everything is recycled and because of the pandemic, we had the time to do that.”

After a successful launch weekend, Alexandra hopes to tempt more customers into the bakery and regularly posts pictures of the delicious goods on Instagram.

She added: “I think a lot of industry is moving out of the city centre - we’re not the first to open a dessert business in an industrial estate, it seems to be a bit of a Leeds thing.

“Everyone we hired is local and we’ve got a lot of women, which is nice for me."

L'eclair Patisserie is open from 10am to 3pm on Thursday to Saturday.

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