Bakehouse Rising: The Creators Of Ba-Le Go European With La Tour
January 20, 2011 | 1 min to read
La Tour Bakehouse / Thanh Quoc Lam shows me an article from 24 years ago, when his only business was a Ba-Le sandwich shop in Chinatown. He was 27 and had been living in the States for only seven years but he told the writer he would grow his business to be as big as Love’s Bakery, then the largest commercial bakery in the state. “You wait,” he is quoted as saying in the article.
Today, he owns an 80,000-square-foot production facility in the former Weyerhaeuser building. It is part of his new brand, La Tour Bakehouse. The new name distinguishes his wholesale business from his ubiquitous Ba-Le franchise.
“My dream was someday I will do wholesale…a 35,000-square-foot bakery,” Lam says. “Now we have 80,000–bigger than Love’s, I think. Still can’t believe it’s true.”
His two sons, Trung, 29, and Brandon, 26, are partners in the business. Trung works on the finance side (daunting, given that the Lams own half the Weyerhaeuser building, which they bought for $20 million). Brandon works on sales.
To read the rest of this story please go to: Honolulu Weekly