© Jerimiah B. Brown

Passing the Baguette

Jeff Renner's bread finds a new home

by James Leonard

posted 12/23/2009

In October, baker Jeff Renner celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the "Best French Bread in Town"--that's the actual name of his business--and lost his biggest outlet with the closing of Fresh Seasons Market. He'd been selling fifty or more baguettes a day, Tuesday through Friday, at the west-side market.

His unplanned vacation didn't last long. "I contacted Jeff at 8 a.m. of the day following Fresh Seasons' announcement," says Robert Cantelon, manager and co-owner of Arbor Farms Market on Stadium. A former baker himself (he owned the legendary Sun Bakery downtown), Cantelon says Renner's bread lives up to its name. "Many folks have followed" his baguettes to Arbor Farms, he says--so many that even after boosting deliveries to eighty loaves a day, they're selling out. "We haven't been able to get enough thus far," says Cantelon. "We've asked Jeff to do an extra bake for us."   

[Originally published in December, 2009.]