They've Got the Goods

Furstenberg is opening a new place of his own next summer: a 50- to 100-seat bakery/restaurant in Upper Northwest. Because he believes that "people don't want to make a special trip" to a bakery, he plans to build "neighborhood allegiance" with breads, house-made ice cream, chocolates, savory sandwiches and takeout entrees.

Harry Sarkees hopes for such allegiance at his new place, too. On Sept. 22 in Vienna, Sarkees plans to open Silva's Patisserie, named in honor of his mother, who will help him create European-style pastries and organic breads. Silva's will be a carryout operation.

Why Vienna?

"I grew up in Vienna. I'm a Vienna boy," says Sarkees, 34, who had a small bakery in Falls Church in the mid-1990s and later was a pastry chef for Restaurant Associates, which runs the food services at the Kennedy Center. "Vienna has very savvy people who have traveled the world, diplomats who know what good pastries are." His specialty: one-bite wonders, such as chocolate Grand Marnier mini-tortes and green tea and pomegranate mousse petits fours.

He has wholesale accounts in place with area country clubs, restaurants and caterers. So far, he has invested $400,000 on building renovations, European-made pastry cases and an Italian bread oven.

That's significantly more than the $80,000 that Brian Noyes has spent on Red Truck Bakery & Farm Store, which he hopes to open Oct. 6 in rural but high-toned The Plains, in Virginia hunt country. He has leased a charming 1920s Victorian clapboard cottage at the town's crossroads that has long been a food store but, according to Noyes, not a particularly successful one.

"It all started with my hobby for making jams and a winning $10,000 Powerball ticket," says Noyes, 50. He's leaving Smithsonian magazine, where he is art director, and opening a country store featuring the jams and breads he developed with the money he won a few years ago. (He is also a former art director for The Washington Post Magazine.)

Noyes launched his one-man baking show in 2004 from his farmhouse near Orlean, in Fauquier County. In addition to his day job, every Friday night he baked dozens of loaves of focaccia, honey-wheat bread, brownies and pies. On Saturday mornings he delivered them to rural stores in a 1954 tomato-red Ford F100 pickup truck that he bought from fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger. And he still found time to study baking at the Culinary Institute of America and L'Academie de Cuisine.

In addition to rustic breads, coffee cakes and fruit pies, Red Truck will stock local, organic and ethically produced meats, dairy products, wine, produce, honey and more. He has lined up a dozen local wineries and country grocers to carry his breads and pastries. Says Noyes: "It's going to take both wholesale and retail components to make this go."

Another baker's dream fulfilled. "It's what I've always wanted: a little country store selling my free-form tarts," Noyes says. "And if I'm going to do it at all, I've got to do it now."