La Petite Boulangerie ("The Little Bakery") was an American

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who ...

chain. Originally a two-store company owned by Food Resources Inc., it was purchased by

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

in 1982 and franchised to various operators, including Food Resources in California and Arizona, and Calny, Inc. in the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

area. At its peak, La Petite Boulangerie had at least 140 locations, including Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Sacramento, and a small number of bakeries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In August 1986, Food Resources sued PepsiCo, alleging that it was misled about La Petite Boulangerie's sales and profit potential. Calny filed a similar lawsuit in March 1987. The Calny suit was resolved with PepsiCo's purchase of Calny in November 1987, which also gave it control of Calny's 142 west coast

Taco Bell Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includi ...

locations. The chain was purchased by Mrs. Fields Original Cookies, Inc. on March 31, 1987, for $15 million. The chain was then acquired by InterWest Partners in July 1993 with a goal of converting it to a chain of gourmet coffee-bakery cafes. The chain had 68 stores at this point, none of which was franchised. Java City purchased the chain from InterWest in May 1994. Cucina Holdings, Inc. acquired Java City in December 2000, but by the end of the month, La Petite Boulangerie was defunct.

References

Defunct restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants established in 1977 Restaurants disestablished in 2000 1977 establishments in California 2000 disestablishments in California Companies based in Marin County, California {{US-restaurant-stub

See also

References