"Today I get up before the sun and watch ovens," Mahfoud Saadouni told the Heart of Orléans BIA this fall. He was describing what he does now after spending most of his career in finance. He and his brother Mohamed opened Les Moulins La Fayette Orléans at 2548 St. Joseph Boulevard on July 14, 2026.
With that opening, the older stretch of St. Joseph has four bakeries between street numbers 2122 and 2548, and each one bakes something the others don't. One is a French boulangerie, one is entirely gluten-free, one makes laminated donuts that won a Dragons' Den deal, and one bakes Turkish pide. The two owners who have talked publicly about their choice of location both pointed to the character of the community around them.
Four addresses on the same boulevard
| Address | Bakery | What it's built around | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2548 St. Joseph Blvd | Les Moulins La Fayette Orléans | French breads and viennoiseries baked on site, pastries, café seating | Opened July 14, 2026 |
| 2297 St. Joseph Blvd | Gutsies | 100% gluten-free bakery and grocery | Opened December 2022 |
| 2208 St. Joseph Blvd, Unit 112 | Holey Confections | Handmade 140-layer donuts | Pitched on Dragons' Den in January 2024 |
| 2122 St. Joseph Blvd | Celina Bakery | Turkish pide, savory pies, cheese and zaatar pastries | Savory stop for lunch |
None of these shops sells what the others do. If you're buying gluten-free bread, you'll stop at only one of them. If you're after a 140-layer donut, you'll go to a different one. A morning croissant at 2548 doesn't cover the gluten-free loaf from 2297 or the pide from 2122.
Why Les Moulins picked Orléans
Les Moulins La Fayette is a French bakery chain that has been operating in Quebec since 1999. Orléans Connect reports that the Orléans location is run by the Saadouni brothers. Mahfoud lived in France for several years, and he told the BIA that his local bakery there was often the only place where someone called him by his first name. He lives in Orléans, and he said the area's strong francophone community, along with how familiar many residents are with French food, made it the obvious choice for a French bakery. "My clients are now my neighbours," he told the BIA.
The building is meant for staying a while. It's a standalone building beside Saadé Plaza with parking out front. Inside are black walls, warm wood panelling, and a large mural of hands kneading dough above the seating area. When Orléans Connect visited, plenty of university students were working on laptops at the tables.
The same Orléans Connect review, published October 28, 2026, lists prices. A regular coffee is $2.75, and lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites run $4.25 to $5.25 depending on size. Individual desserts cost around $6 to $6.50, including a tiramisu and a torched-meringue lemon tartlet. Most loaves on the bread wall, such as miche blanche, olive bread and multigrain, fall between $6 and $8. The reviewers' favourite was the oversized chocolate macaron, rated 4.9 out of 5. They also rated the chocolate-almond croissant and a Montreal-style smoked meat BLT on a seeded loaf.
The retail shelf is useful when you need a hostess gift. It carries mini palmiers and cheese straws at $7.95 each, lemon and vanilla mini meringues at $11.50 and $10.95, mendiants, and an assorted rocher box at $21.50.
Why Gutsies picked St. Joseph
Natasha Landry and Denis Ouellet opened Gutsies in December 2022, and they explained their choice of St. Joseph in a Heart of Orléans BIA profile. They wanted a spot close to the highway because they expected customers from beyond Orléans. They also said they "loved the homey, community feeling of St-Joseph where little mom and pop shops line the street," and that their clients "love shopping in the older part of town."
Gutsies is a 100% gluten-free grocery store and bakery. When it profiled the shop, the BIA listed eight different fresh breads along with croissants, donuts, cookies, muffins, cupcakes, scones, brownies and cake slices, plus frozen meals and shelf goods. It singled out the early-morning pain au chocolat and the banana muffins, and called the frozen pizza dough one of the best in town. According to the Gutsies FAQ, the Orléans store is one of two Gutsies locations in Ottawa. It opens at 10 a.m. every day and closes at 6 p.m. on weekdays and 5 p.m. on weekends.
That 10 a.m. opening matters for planning. Gutsies opens later than a typical early-morning bakery, so it fits better as a late-morning stop.
A donut shop with a national audience
Holey Confections is the family-owned donut business of Tyler and Samantha Armstrong, and its Orléans address is 2208 St. Joseph Blvd., Unit 112, as the Ottawa Citizen reported. Its product is a handmade donut with 140 layers. The Armstrongs pitched it on CBC's Dragons' Den in Season 18, Episode 13, which aired January 11, 2024. CTV News Ottawa reported that they accepted $500,000 for 25% of the business from Dragons Vincenzo Guzzo and Manjit Minhas.
The TV exposure explains how the shop handles orders now. A banner on the Holey Confections website says demand has been high since the show and asks customers to order online so they get the donuts they want for pickup. Of the four shops on this stretch, Holey is the one that works best if you plan ahead. Order online first, then pick up.
The pide stop at the other end
Celina Bakery, at 2122 St. Joseph Blvd., is listed in the Heart of Orléans BIA directory. Its menu includes Turkish pide and savory pies along with cheese and zaatar pastries. That makes it the savory stop on the strip. It's where you'd buy lunch rather than dessert.
Putting a Saturday together
Since each shop does something different, the order you visit them in matters more than which one you pick. Working in descending street numbers, the stretch runs like this:
- Order from Holey Confections online the night before. The shop asks customers to reserve donuts for pickup, so placing the order ahead means the flavours you want will be waiting.
- Start at Les Moulins La Fayette, 2548 St. Joseph. Breads and viennoiseries are baked there each morning, and the café seating is built for staying through a coffee.
- Gutsies, 2297 St. Joseph, any time after 10 a.m. If anyone at your table eats gluten-free, this is the stop for bread, a pain au chocolat, or pizza dough for the week.
- Pick up your Holey order at 2208 St. Joseph.
- Finish at Celina Bakery, 2122 St. Joseph, for pide or a savory pie to take home for lunch.
Check each shop's current hours before you head out, especially early on a weekend morning.
One more, off the strip
Délice Royal, at 1600 Forest Valley Drive, isn't on St. Joseph, but it has been on this list longer than any of them. Orléans Connect describes it as family-owned since 1995. It makes French pastries, artisan breads and custom celebration cakes under Executive Pastry Chef Kieng Gov, who has more than 25 years of pastry experience. That's 31 years in Forest Valley, and it shows that Orléans had a French pastry shop long before Les Moulins arrived on St. Joseph. If you need a custom cake for a celebration, Délice Royal is the one to call.
Knowing which shops are within a short drive is part of knowing a neighbourhood, and that's the kind of local detail Steve Brunet shares with clients across Orléans, in English or French. If you're thinking about where your next home should be, from the older streets around St. Joseph to the newer pockets farther out, let's connect over a coffee from one of these four.
