Clémence de Lutz, the baker behind Petitgrain Boulangerie's cult-favorite croissants, has opened a second Santa Monica shop just eight blocks from her flagship — a 500-square-foot bakery and chocolatier that bakes nearly all its bread and pastry with whole-grain flour, and carries two names painted quietly on its exterior wall. The new spot, called Petitpain … et Chocolat, sits at 1013 Pico Blvd., a space de Lutz took over in January.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the names on the wall belong to Christine Moore, the Pasadena confectioner behind Little Flower Candy Company and Little Flower Cafe who died earlier this year, and Pepper, de Lutz's foster daughter, who also died earlier in 2026. De Lutz has said she is trying to channel grief and honor those she lost through the new shop, per the same report. Moore, who was 61 when she died in January, built her reputation on handmade sea-salt caramels and French pastries, and was widely celebrated for feeding evacuees during local wildfire emergencies, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Pico Boulevard space previously served as a pickup window for Sweet Laurel, the grain-free bakery co-founded by Laurel Gallucci, which phased out local pickup in early 2026 as it shifted toward nationwide shipping after regional wildfire disruptions, per the Santa Monica Mirror. Gallucci vacated the Santa Monica space, clearing the way for de Lutz's expansion, the Times reports.
Solving a Power Problem Eight Blocks Away
Petitgrain Boulangerie, de Lutz's original bakery at 1209 Wilshire Blvd., could not install a bread oven without overhauling its electrical system, the Los Angeles Times reports. That limitation is part of what pushed de Lutz toward Pico Boulevard: the new shop now bakes loaves of bread for both Petitpain and Petitgrain, transporting whole loaves back to the flagship and functioning as a commissary kitchen for de Lutz's growing operation, per the same account.
De Lutz has said she wanted to offer bread at her first bakery from the start, and the new space finally makes that possible. It also gives her room for something she has wanted for years: a dedicated, climate-controlled chocolate workshop. The Times describes the setup as a 100-year-old temperature-controlled space where chocolatier Ruth Kennison now oversees a bean-to-bar chocolate program, roasting and processing cacao onsite by winnowing and cracking the beans.
A Chocolatier Two Decades in the Making
Kennison has made bean-to-bar chocolate as a hobby for 20 years, according to the Times, and previously taught alongside de Lutz at the Gourmandise cooking school the two helped build together. Kennison trained at The French Pastry School and the Callebaut Chocolate Academy, founded the Santa Monica Chocolate Society, and runs an educational venture called The Chocolate Project, according to The Gourmandise School. At Petitpain, her program turns out a creamy, not-too-sweet chocolate bar and a dark milk chocolate made with high cacao content, less sugar and more cream — using organic whole-milk powder sourced from Alexandre Family Farms, a Del Norte County dairy that was the first in the United States to achieve Certified Regenerative Organic status, according to Whole Foods Market.
De Lutz's own path to professional baking wound through the film industry — she grew up in France and once sold cookies from her cubicle while working in film licensing at 20th Century Fox, before co-founding the Gourmandise cooking school in 2011, according to the Times. She's also written for the Los Angeles Times in the past as a contributor. Her business partner at Petitgrain, Tony Hernandez, built his own baking career at recognized Los Angeles kitchens including Proof Bakery, Friends & Family and Bread Lounge, according to Eater LA.
Whole Grain, Pushed to the Limit
Where Petitgrain uses 20% to 50% whole-grain flour across its roughly 30 pastries, Petitpain pushes that ratio from 50% up to 100%, per the Los Angeles Times. Nearly all of Petitpain's loaves are 50% whole-grain sourdough, made from rye, spelt and hard red flour, and the shop's six pastries include an entirely whole-grain croissant that de Lutz developed over several years. De Lutz has said bread is the best expression of whole grains, and that the bean-to-bar chocolate dream required space, power and temperature controls she didn't have before.
The rest of the pastry case leans into the same whole-grain, fruit-forward style: a twice-baked almond and honey croissant, a farmers-market-fruit bostock, whole-grain spelt shortbread, and a cinnamon bun glazed in cinnamon butter. The bread program turns out boules, sesame loaves, baguettes and brioche alongside the sourdough loaves that also stock Petitgrain's shelves.
Coffee, Milk Bread and a Family Routine
Petitpain's drink menu includes lattes and other espresso drinks pulled on a machine supplied by Civil Coffee, the Highland Park-founded roaster that began in 2012 as a mobile cart run by brothers Alan and Alex Morales before expanding into permanent cafes in Highland Park, Downtown L.A. and Studio City, according to Sprudge. The shop also makes its own nut milks and horchata, and serves toasted milk bread topped with house-made chocolate, olive oil and sea salt.
The pace behind all of it remains punishing. De Lutz shapes croissants between midnight and 1 a.m. daily, producing 600 to 900 of them each day to be ready for early-morning foot traffic, according to the Los Angeles Times. Petitpain … et Chocolat is open Wednesday through Sunday, 6:45 a.m. to 2 p.m., at 1013 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica.
