Let the panic subside; La Baguette will reopen next week. It won’t all be finished when the doors open Sept. 7, the day after Labor Day, but the renovation sounds pretty dramatic. 

Cousins Judd and David Tashie bought the bakery in March, kept it going for a while, including partially into its renovation, but it got to a point where it was necessary to close it all down, Judd Tashie said. 

Recipe Exchange: Café Samovar’s Beef Stroganoff

The bakery in Chickasaw Oaks is really four parts: The market, which is where you enter from the outside to get food to go; the bakery; the dining room in back; and the kitchen. The market and the bakery will be fully renovated next week, and while the kitchen and the dining room will be open, there’s more to come there.

Here’s a great touch: There’s a big window between the market and the bakery, so we’ll be able to watch the show (though keep in mind that a lot of it starts around midnight, while we’re all snug in bed).

“It started off as a small kitchen expansion but it ended up being a full bakery overhaul too,” Tashie said. “We were already renovating the market and went all in on that. When we reopen, there will be a new ceiling, new lighting, new equipment, new flooring, the window to the bakery, which is really great.

“David has done a spectacular job directing the traffic on it all. Every time he sends pictures I’m blown away.”

You’ll still be able to get your favorite items, and look for some old ones, like the citron cake, to come back. There’s new stuff, too. 

“We’re going to have filled croissants, which is something new. We’re importing the base for the creams – it’s something actually used to make gelato, but we’ll use it for things like pistachio cream,” Tashie said.

Table Talk: Masking up in restaurants and schools; Café Samovar recipe revealed

Merchandise, like imported olive oils, pasta and other specialty food items, will be added to the market down the line. For now, it’s the same favorite grab-and-go items such as chicken salad, pimento cheese, egg and olive and so on.

You’ll still be able to get quiche, spicy tomato soup and sandwiches, and you’ll be able to eat in the dining room and the courtyard, though it will be “makeshift” as work continues to build a bar and revamp it.

“As soon as it’s done and we’re able to hire enough people, we’re going to start dinner,” Tashie said. “Bistro food, things like a croque madame, coq au vin.”

The bakery celebrated its 45th anniversary this year, shortly after the Tashies purchased it. A second location planned for the fall has been pushed back to January, when Ciao Bella, another Tashie family restaurant in East Memphis, moves from a little down the road, from the Erin Way shopping center to Sanderlin. La Baguette and Ciao Bella will share the building that was most recently Craft Republic but is best known as the Fox and Hound.

New Eats: Saucy Chicken has new digs in East Memphis

Abby Wilkerson, who has been at Ciao Bella, is the new general manager of La Baguette. Master baker Ta Rasasack, who has been at La Baguette about 35 years, is in charge of the bakery.