Saturday, July 11, 2015

Closed: Japonaise Bakery in Porter Square

Former home of Japonaise Bakery in Porter Square

I keep forgetting to post an update on this. I stopped by the main store in Brookline a few weeks ago and asked if the Porter location had closed permanently. The woman who was working said, "I think so." Last week I was at the Porter Exchange and their space was completely cleaned out. I'm really sad that they've closed but I imagine they've struggled since Kotobukiya (the Japanese grocery store) closed in 2009. They closed their Packard's Corner location two summers ago. Since then equipment breakage has seen their offerings shrink (first it was their deep fryer resulting in no more curry donuts or cake donuts and then equipment related to bread-making.)

I hope that downsizing will allow them to survive but if they're not able to get new equipment I don't know if they'll be able to get by selling only cakes and pastries. There was no bread the last time I went to their Brookline location. They were the only source of freshly made Japanese breads in the Boston area. Ebisuya has Japanese bread trucked up from Parisienne Bakery in New Jersey.

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2 comments:

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    1. I know. :( I miss the shokupan and the cake donuts (which were like my Okinawan grandma's donuts). Brookline is kind of out of the way for me so I can only go there once in a while. I used to go to the porter location almost every week.

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