At the end of last year, the L.A.-based bakery Sweet Lady Jane abruptly closed its doors at all six locations after 35 years.
Long known as a Los Angeles mainstay founded in 1988 by Jane Lockhart, the bakery became a symbol of craft and creativity, with its triple berry cake as one of L.A.'s most beloved pastries.
The company used social media to blame the closures on California's high operating costs. Soon after the closure, though, came allegations that there was more to the story.
Later on, it was revealed by the L.A. Times that the bakery was facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly failing to pay overtime, provide meal and rest periods, pay minimum wage in some instances, and keep complete and accurate payroll records. The bakery denied wrongdoing.
Then came news that that Sweet Lady Jane was back — and under new ownership, Pacific French Bakery, which has four bakery locations throughout Los Angeles and is known for its Central American pastries.
Julie Ngu, the CEO of Pacific French Bakery, said her purchase of the Sweet Lady Jane chain includes the original branding, social media channels, the intellectual property, and its recipes (triple berry cake included).
While some are joyous about the return of Sweet Lady Jane, others remain skeptical and outraged at the allegations of employee mistreatment and shuttering the doors on devoted customers without warning.
On a recent Instagram post from last week, one commenter said, "Bad mouth California, fire your employees with no warning and ruin people's special days. Terrible," and offered this advice to the new owner: "rebrand." Some of the same sentiments were expressed on Reddit, with some dubbing the shops "Shady Lady Jane."
When we reached out to Ngu for her take, and her story, she told us she comes from an Asian American background, with her parents migrating from Vietnam to China and then starting their own bakery business upon arriving in America and settling in Los Angeles.
She spoke about having great memories of visiting the original Sweet Lady Jane location on Melrose. Ngu recalls seeing the quote from Julia Child displayed in the bakery: "A party without cake is just a meeting."
"It was such a beautiful quote, and that's what I want to do," Ngu says.
Ngu and her team have taken over Sweet Lady Jane's social media using #JaneIsBack, letting customers know the bakery will return to its original locations. Ngu said the Santa Monica and Beverly Hills locations are slated to be among the first to reopen. When we have firm reopening details we will update this story.
Ngu said she has made it her mission to hire as many former employees as possible, too.
She started with a printout on the door of the Santa Monica location seeking new employees. And when she received a call from a former employee who expressed interest in returning, Ngu sought her help in finding any other employees who wanted to return.
From that one phone call, Ngu said she ended up hiring back 20 employees. "These employees really love Sweet Lady Jane, the culture, and the cakes. And it's just to me, it's a no-brainer. I would love to bring them back, and I love to do the right thing."
When asked what she thinks the future of Sweet Lady Jane looks like for the loyal customer base, she said, "The feeling of Sweet Lady Jane is coming back with the beautiful custom cakes that we all dream about, and the priority for me is employees, number one, they are a backbone of our company."
Ngu recalled when they first opened the doors at the Santa Monica location earlier this week, a customer stood at the door and screamed, "Are you back?!?! We missed you!!!" and hugged Ngu.
"We had a moment, and it was the sweetest thing," Ngu said. "You have no idea how many dozens of people did the same thing. I felt like I was hugging the neighborhood. And it was such a warm welcome back that I knew we're staying, and we're not going anywhere."
