The La Madeline French Bakery & Café located on Mockingbird Lane near SMU is set to reopen on Saturday, July 24.
According to a release, the location has been temporarily closed for renovations for a few weeks.
This is the original La Madeleine, which opened at 3072 Mockingbird Ln. in 1983. It's where they developed La Madeleine's mission. Where they created the tomato basil soup, and first started putting out trays of sliced bread and bins of jam, to which you could help yourself.
That free bread thing is one tradition that met its demise thanks to COVID-19 - although the company surely can't be lamenting what was definitely a big area for greedy abuse not to mention waste, since how many people do you know would take three slices of bread because it was free and then not eat it all because it was, after all, free?
La Madeleine has been undergoing some serious changes to get it up to speed with modern times, beginning in early 2020 with a new "petite" format store they debuted in downtown Dallas, tailored to meet the needs of the building and the neighborhood, with a smaller footprint and a sharper focus on convenience and flexibility including an array of to-go foods.
In February 2021, they introduced a new prototype store in Addison with brand-new features that included a scratch-baking process visible to diners as well as the chain's very first drive-thru.
The company has also partnered with Walmart on a new prototype concept called La Madeleine Express, featuring fan favorites like Chicken Caesar Salad and Tomato Basil Soup, as well as new items including pizzas, that have been created specifically for its Walmart locations. La Madeleine Express will initially open in 10 test locations, with the first expected to open in Garland in July.
Founded in 1983, and owned by Rennes, France-based Groupe Le Duff, la Madeleine has 22 locations in Dallas-Fort Worth. That includes the original on Mockingbird Lane, which will now boast a brighter, fresher interior and new décor. Farewell, gnarly wood and charming Euro-style dining nooks.
The update will also offer increased access to outdoor seating and a new grab-n-go cooler for guests who want to quickly grab food to-go.
In order to ramp up the excitement over this remodel, they're celebrating by giving away free bread for a year to the first 50 dine-in customers — a little something to ease the blow of a 40-year-old institution getting its inevitable update.
