Gustave Le Jardin, 2213 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.
It may be the wrong time of year, but Karim Mashmour and Ibtissam Lhadi’s vision for a slice of France in Del Ray is finally finished.
Gustave Le Jardin, their capacious, family-friendly beer garden with picnic tables, a dog park, bocce, and a sandbox, finally opened in early February. Evening crowds will no doubt pick up when the weather improves, but for now, the outdoor area gives patrons at the Francophone couple’s adjoining bakery, Gustave Boulangerie, some extra space to sit and chat on warm mornings.
“When you’re in a place like Del Ray, you have to think about the community,” Mashmour says. “Everybody still has the memory of being alone during Covid, so this open space is the perfect setup for bringing people together.”
The husband-and-wife team opened Gustave Boulangerie last June, and it quickly became a hit with Del Ray residents—it’s hard to turn down croissants, jambon-beurre sandwiches, and fresh quiche from a seasoned French baker—but the place didn’t secure its liquor license until November, by which time the weather was less conducive to a brisk outdoor business. They spent the next three months building out the roomy lawn into an after-work one-stop-shop aimed at the Alexandria neighborhood’s families.
Mashmour, a veteran boulanger who has worked at Boulangerie Christophe and Tatte, is a native of the small city of Belfort in northeastern France, near the German border, where he developed a love of the biergarten along with a passion for patisserie. At Gustave, he’s serving local brews from Port City Brewing Company, Lost Boy Cider, and Aslin Beer Company, along with European standbys like Kronenbourg, Stella Artois, and German hefeweizens. Mashmour aims to keep all the beers under $7.
Lhadi was born and raised in northern Morocco before moving to the US. She’s helped develop a menu of Moroccan and Provencal-inflected dishes that will be available in the garden when the weather improves, possibly as soon as March. In the meantime, customers are encouraged to bring their own food from Del Ray Pizzeria across the street, especially after Gustave’s bakery closes at 6 PM.
The timing of the opening—in the dead of winter, six months later than expected—has been unfortunate, and after what they hope is a busy summer, Mashmour and Lhadi may add some covering to weather-proof the outdoor area. In the meantime, Mashmour says, people are still taking their pastries out to the garden whenever they can. “I think people don’t really mind the cold weather as long as it’s sunny,” he says.
