By Robert M. Sarwark
On Sunday, May 11 – Mother’s Day – Grant Park’s Remy Lemoine and his husband, Kyle Bernstein, served up their last batch of pastries.
There were ham and cheese croissants, kouign amanns (a specialty originating in France’s Celtic region of Brittany), an assortment of cookies, everything-bagel pretzel croissants, cinnamon cardamom knots, orange almond bostocks, lemon blueberry “snails,” and lemon cardamom morning buns. 85 sales took place, Lemoine reported — normally the average is 50. Many walked away with brown paper bags stuffed with treasures, but some crestfallen souls were unfortunately left empty-handed; there simply was not enough product to go around. “I was not expecting this many people,” Lemoine later admitted.
That was five days after his final front-yard, pop-up bake sale — events known on Instagram and by word-of-mouth as “RemyMade” — on Kendrick Avenue in Grant Park. (On and off, Lemoine and Bernstein have held them for the better part of the last decade.) An estimated 150 loyal fans made sure to be there in person for one last taste.
The line leading up to the front yard of Chez Lemoine-Bernstein had begun to materialize at 8:30am ahead of the 10:00 opening that morning. And it stretched all the way down the block, to Grant Street. Although the couple had baked 30% more goods than for their normal bake sales, they were entirely sold out by 11:30am. “It went well,” Lemoine reported, quite understatedly. “We were very happy!”
Clearly, many others were happy too. Asked about why they had made the effort to line up so early on a Sunday morning, those closest to the front were happy to share their thoughts.
Earl Puckett and Joya Chapman made the trip from outside of the Perimeter — Smyrna, to be exact — to get in line by 8:30am and secure their bag. Of RemyMade’s impact, Puckett said, “Over time, when you create enough of a demand for people on a random Sunday — once a month or once every couple of months — to come and form a line two hours beforehand, I think you’ve made a statement.” It was the variety of French-style pastries, Chapman added, that inspired the married couple to make it a point to visit the pop-ups as often as they could. “We will miss you,” she said, addressing Lemoine and Bernstein. “Thank you for what you brought to the community.”
At the very front of the line was Ty Youstin and his family, also from Smyrna. Based on a tip from a friend in Grant Park, Youstin had been coming to “RemyMade” pop-ups since they began about nine years ago. He has seldom missed one. Though Youstin’s young son James, 6, had a hankering for doughnuts that morning (which Lemoine and Bernstein do not make, alas), the entire family expressed their gratitude for the many years of homemade pastries, especially the croissants. “It’s going to be really sad not to have his bake sales to look forward to,” Ty said.
Remy Lemoine was raised in Chambourcy, about an hour outside of Paris. It was there that he first developed a passion for good food, exemplifying what many would recognize as a quintessential aspect of French culture. “Some of my best memories of my childhood are food related,” he noted. Lemoine studied organic chemistry in Paris, earning his Ph.D. in 1995. That same year, he embarked for the United States and Stanford University to complete a postdoctoral program there. It was during this time that Lemoine met his now husband (and baking partner), Bernstein. Lemoine went on to work as a medicinal chemist for a corporation in the San Francisco Bay Area until 2014, when Bernstein was hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The couple moved to Kendrick Avenue in Grant Park in 2015, where they have lived ever since.
“RemyMade” began as an offshoot of the French cooking classes Lemoine had once held in San Francisco. His background in organic chemistry was naturally linked to his interest in baking pastries with highly nuanced flavor profiles: both fields require precise preparation, measurements, and execution, and furthermore focus and patience. In 2016, Lemoine and Bernstein shifted to pop-up bake sales in their front yard. “As [they] became more and more successful,” Lemoine explained, “it started becoming a business.” He soon acquired a cottage-business license to make things official with the City and all food-safety regulations.
Now, as a result of Kyle’s termination at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) due to Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts, the couple is returning to San Francisco; Kyle has been offered another position at that city’s Department of Public Health. And while their many fans in Atlanta have voiced their understanding of the couple’s reasons for relocating, the departure leaves a bittersweet aftertaste, if not a gaping hole, in Grant Park’s rich and unique culture. “We will miss you so very much, but also [are] very excited for your new journey ahead!” commented one of RemyMade’s nearly 2,500 followers on Instagram.
“I’m leaving it at the apex of what it could be,” Lemoine concluded his thoughts on his final bake sale in Atlanta, at least for the foreseeable future. He doesn’t plan on ever turning the project into a full-time endeavor, but his passion for making high-quality pastries remains. “I’m fortunate to be able to bring the bake sale from selling three items to selling all the stuff that I have — from having about a dozen sales to 85,” he said. It was always about “providing something good and tasty to people on a small scale.”
Merci beaucoup, Chef Lemoine, et bon voyage.
