Fred’s Bread opens first bakery café in Evanston on Noyes Street

Fred’s Bread has stepped off the farmers’ market circuit and into a fixed home on Noyes Street, turning a former laundromat into a bakery café that gives Evanston’s longtime bread fans a new daily stop. After years of selling at the Evanston Farmers’ Market and out of shared kitchen space, the Bressands opened Fred’s Bread French Bakery & Café at 817 Noyes St., a move that changes the business from a Saturday ritual into a neighborhood address.

The transformation was more than cosmetic. Kate and Frédéric Bressand took the old Good News Laundromat space down to the studs, rebuilt the flooring and installed serious bakery equipment, including high-end bread ovens, proofers, sheeters and refrigeration. The finished room is meant to feel like Evanston itself, with blond wood, deep marine blue walls, rattan and rope fixtures, and a front counter packed with pastries. Fresh loaves and baguettes line the east wall, so the bread is not just the menu, it is part of the décor.

That setup gives Fred’s more room to stretch beyond the market stall. The café opened with a trifold menu and plans to move eventually to a wall-mounted specials board, while the dining room was designed for 36 seats and early hours from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at launch. Breakfast, brunch and lunch are the initial focus, with dinner and apéro slated to follow, along with beer and wine in the dining room. For regulars who know the brand from the farmers’ market, the payoff is obvious: a place to sit down for pastries, soup, sandwiches and coffee, without losing the Saturday market presence that built the following.

Sourdough remains the anchor. Fred’s excellent sourdough bread already shows up alongside French lentil soup, and the bakery’s loaves are now part of a fuller café routine that makes bread feel like an everyday purchase instead of a special trip. The Bressands are keeping the market alive, too. Fred’s Bread will continue at the Evanston Farmers’ Market, so the new shop adds a second channel rather than replacing the original line at the stall.

That balance matters because the business has always been built on community demand. Kate Bressand said the café had been a dream for the couple since they met about 16 years ago, and Frédéric Bressand, who moved to Evanston in 2016, had been baking from shared space, including a kitchen below Gigio’s Pizza, since Fred’s Bread started in 2020. The breads and pastries have been made mostly with French suppliers or local vendors, including French butter and honey from Bond Artisan Foods, which keeps the profile familiar even as the scale changes.

The new bakery also lands in a corridor locals have been trying to build up as a restaurant destination, near the Noyes CTA stop and between Soban and Dave’s Italian Kitchen. A market favorite that once lived only in a Saturday line now has a front door, a dining room and a place in the neighborhood’s daily rhythm, while still keeping its place at the market where that line first formed.