photo by: Courtesy: Tous les Jours

Cakes from Tous les Jours are pictured in this screenshot from the bakery's website.

Any bakery that is named “Everyday” gets off on the right foot with me because that is exactly how I like my sweets and carbs. West Lawrence indeed is getting such a bakery, although you may need to brush up on your French to know it.

The bakery Tous les Jours — French for “everyday” — is in the process of opening in a portion of the former Blue Moose Bar & Grill at 525 Wakarusa Drive, which is the commercial area just east of Walmart. David Ahn, an owner of the family-run bakery, said he hopes to open it by late November or early December.

When it does open, it will follow the philosophy that twists are a good thing in life. (I’ve always liked cinnamon ones, if you are picking some up.) Tous les Jours will have that type of bakery twists, but that’s not exactly what I was talking about. Rather, the entire bakery is built on a bit of a twist in convention.

“I would call it a French-inspired, Asian bakery,” said Ahn, whose family is from South Korea. “You will see some familiar things, but also some things you don’t see very often.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The future home for Tous les Jours bakery at 525 Wakarusa Drive is pictured on Oct. 21, 2022

That includes some bakery items with green-tea-flavored icing or breads that use taro root or red bean paste to give them an Asian influence. Then there is yuzu. If you haven’t heard of yuzu, you weren’t alone. It is an east Asian fruit that some say is a bit of a cross between a grapefruit and a mandarin orange. It is a featured ingredient in a yuzu citrus pie that the bakery has on its menu in Overland Park, where the family has operated a bakery for the last seven years.

The shop has developed a large menu in that time. The bakery’s website boasts 150 different items in its repertoire, and Ahn estimates that the bakery has 80 items available on any given day.

There’s a mix of classic French items like croissants, twists, macarons, madeleines, puff pastries and a variety of breads. But sprinkled throughout there are items like a red bean doughnut, a snow pea pastry, mocha bread, melon bread and sweet potato cake.

You don’t hear about a sweet potato cake everyday, but make no mistake about what type of cake is the bakery’s most popular. Fresh cream cakes rule at Tous les Jours.

That is not the case at most bakeries. Butter cream cakes have been a big trend in American bake shops for a long time, but Ahn says the fresh cream cakes have their own devotees, as well.

“It is a lighter, fluffier cake,” he said. “The cream is a lot lighter than butter cream, and it is not as sweet. It is still sweet enough, but it is not too sweet.”

The cakes also are frosted with the fresh cream, meaning they don’t have the often thick and heavy fondant type of frostings that you sometimes see the television chefs mold into all types of creations. That means Tous les Jours’ cakes aren’t likely to come out in the shape of your favorite Disney character, but they are fancy, and often are set off with elaborate decorations of fresh fruit.

They are also popular. “We sell more cakes than anything,” Ahn said.

The bakery’s menu is geared toward sweet items, Ahn said, but also includes some more savory offerings, such as danishes with either spinach and feta cheese or tomato and olive fillings, garlic twists, or garlic baguette cookies.

Tous les Jours is occupying about 60% of the space the former Blue Moose Bar & Grill occupied, making it a bigger than normal sweet shop. Ahn said the location will have plenty of seating so that people can stay at the bakery and enjoy their items on site. The Overland Park location is open from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., but Ahn said he thinks the West Lawrence location may allow for even longer hours.

The business also will offer a beverage menu but it doesn’t plan to have a liquor license, Ahn said. Instead, the beverage menu will focus on coffees, including mochas, cappuccinos, lattes and iced varieties.

Ahn’s family has been interested in having a bakery in Lawrence for a number of years, but has been waiting for the right opportunity, he said. Opportunity came in the form of an entire building. Ahn’s family purchased the entire building that housed the Blue Moose.

Putting a bakery in part of the space was an easy decision, but the family had to make some decisions about what to do with the approximately 40% of the Blue Moose space that won’t be part of the bakery. Rather than trying to lease out the space, the family is opening a second business venture there.

It will be called 525 Place and will be an events and meeting hall. Ahn said he can see it being a space to host everything from birthday parties to business meetings. Certainly the bakery will be available to cater such events in the space, but he said the meeting space will be its own separate business and available for functions not connected to the bakery as well.

Briefly, on another sweet note, there continue to be signs that a new candy shop will locate in downtown Lawrence in the former spot of the Raven Bookstore, 6 E. Seventh St. A sign for Squishingtons candy store has been in the window for a couple of months now. However, it appears the space is still relatively empty, but I’ll work to talk with the owner as the project starts to advance more.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

A coming soon sign for Squishingtons candy story is shown on Oct. 21, 2022.