Beloved Upper West Side bakery Patisserie Margot closes its doors
NEW YORK -- A beloved bakery on the Upper West Side is closing its doors for good.
The small family-owned shop brought big love to the community for three decades. As CBS2's Dave Carlin reports, it managed to pull through the pandemic, but now it's the end of the line.
Patisserie Margot takes up just a sliver of real estate in the luxury Upper West Side building, the Ansonion.
The bakery and café served its last tart, éclair and quiche because the lease is done for the space on West 74th Street near Broadway.
The owner, Margot, says her first name only is all she goes by.
"I promised to everyone I would stay 'til the bitter end and the bitter end has come," she said.
CBS2 caught her in the middle of a frenzy of packing up with a Monday deadline to move out.
"I just want to thank all my customers. I mean, I love you guys," Margot said.
She ran the business for 12 years after taking over from a friend, who started it in 1994. It grew into a neighborhood fixture and favorite.
"They had the best baguettes in all of Manhattan," one customer said.
"It's a landmark in a landmark, basically," another customer said.
Some fans looked puzzled standing at the bakery's locked front door Saturday. They thought they had more time to say goodbye, but the air conditioning went out, so Friday became the final day instead of Sunday.
They feel Margot's Patisserie is the "little shop that could." The pandemic shutdown of March 2020 saw it close only briefly. It came right back a month later, and then struggled to this day with profits drying up.
She told CBS2 scaffolding outside was a nuisance for several years and she feels it hid her bakery from potential customers.
Paying the same lease rent amount now is no longer possible.
Margot says she will donate the food supply and some of the equipment.
"I'm going to just take a breather right now," she said.
After that, she plans to get more training as a pastry chef in Paris.
When asked if she will open another Upper West Side shop, she says while the curtain is down, just like the perfect pasty, it can be made to rise.