Woeful lamentations echoed through town when the Starbucks in west Preston Center closed its doors in the summer of 2024. But as Alexander Graham Bell once said, “When one door closes, another one opens.” Fortunately, the door that opened in the space adjacent to that Starbucks is Village Baking Co., the bakery known for its French-style pastries, bread, coffee, and community-welcoming atmosphere.
The Preston Center outpost of the locally owned bakery opened August 20, a date I completely missed because I was in France, eating as many baguettes and croissants as I could before having to stop cold turkey upon my return to Dallas. It was a post in my community Facebook group that reminded me that the Preston Center location of Village Baking Co. was open. Yay, because I had been going to the Oak Lawn location to pick up the goodies that allowed me to taper off my habit rather than the hard stop I dreaded.
Village Baking Co.’s fifth bakery is a relative sliver in the giant block called Preston Financial Center. Blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, the bakery faces Kate Street and has a nice glass front with bistro chairs and tables on the sidewalk. Despite its cozy 1,050 square-foot-space, the bakery has an expansive pastry case and espresso bar, a refrigerated grab-and-go section, shelves that display a well-curated selection of items from vanilla extract to Brightland olive oils and vinegars and, of course, bread. There are also plenty of places to sit in the space adorned with photos of kids wearing mini chef hats making bread, framed photos of French pastries and beautiful art from Blue Print.
Some of the kids in the photos belong to Village Baking Co.’s CEO, Andy Wallace, with whom I had the pleasure of speaking recently at the bakery. Wallace, along with the company’s co-owners Mark Plunkett and Seth Bame, are serious about the quality of the baked goods they sell.
The Village Baking Co. bakehouse, located near the Dallas Design District, operates 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week. There, the baking team produces muffins, scones, laminated brioches, baguettes, sour dough, and other varieties of bread and, my personal favorite, the Kouign-Amann. Oh, it also makes around 13,000 croissants a week: plain, chocolate, and almond (the best seller).
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Andy Wallace is a petroleum engineer by education and profession. He came into this role equipped with both a strong comprehension of process engineering and a fierce appreciation of tradition. What is baking if not engineering simple ingredients and modifying them through hydro, chemical, and thermal dynamics? Through the course of our 45-minute conversation, I also noticed that his values are rooted in family, community, and friendship, and he has an appreciation for building and preserving things, from baked goods to historic homes. Sounds like the perfect person to run a bakery.
“At its heart, Village Baking Co. is about more than just great bread,” he said. “It’s about creating spaces that feel familiar and joyful — a place that builds community where people want to gather and return, whether it’s for their morning coffee or a mid-day sandwich.”
In addition to the sweet pastries, Village Baking Co. sells savory items, including ham and cheese croissants to which you can add an egg, sandwiches such as smoked turkey and bacon and the French classic jambon-beurre (ham and butter) sandwich, which is available in two sizes, regular and mini (on the cutest little mini baguette!)
Village Baking Co.’s other locations, Bishop Arts, Knox Street, Lower Greenville, and Oak Lawn, offer different, though no less welcoming, environments than the shiny new Preston Center store.
They will sell addition items for the holidays, such as pies and the quintessentially French Bûche De NoëlI and, in addition to its storefront locations, the bakery also offers catering.
For more information, visit https://villagebakingco.com and follow them on Instagram.
