Potpourri Boulangerie
317 North Zang Boulevard • Dallas, TX 75208
214-941-9941 • potpourrioakcliff.com
Andrés Barreiro, owner and chef at Potpourri Boulangerie, had a love of baked goods instilled in him at an early age. His parents were immigrants—mother (Cris) from Nicaragua and father (Tino) from Cuba—and met each other while Tino was studying at The University of Texas. They fell in love, married, and moved to Dallas. After some time, Cris welcomed son Estevan to this world and began baking cakes out of her house. Andrés was born two years later, and Cris created more and more cakes and decided that she needed a building to dedicate to her art.
The savvy entrepreneur found a petite yellow house in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. It was indeed a fixer-upper but had great potential for a business, which would ultimately turn into a cake and flower shop under the name Potpourri of Silk. Fast forward many years to 2011, Andrés’s affinity and familiarity with cooking, thanks to his mother, became much more than a fantasy when he enrolled in culinary school in Austin, Texas. Gathering inspiration from his travels to Canada, the chef wanted to bring a bit of Montreal and Quebec’s European influence to his hometown. “When coffee shops were opening everywhere, I wanted to open a bread and coffee shop that did brunch and lunch,” Andrés remarks. “I found a coffee provider [Cavallini Fine Coffee and Teas] that also did teas and thought that the yellow house looked much more like a teahouse than a coffee shop.” The beverage company agreed to create four bespoke tea blends for the shop that they could sell to customers.
“This was the beginning of the teahouse,” Andrés explains. “I had never had afternoon tea in my life and neither had my parents. We started providing more and more tea blends, still offering brunch and lunch.”
After word had gotten out that Potpourri was selling teas, people began asking if the business served afternoon tea. “We did research overnight to figure out what afternoon teas are,” Andrés chuckles. “We started doing tea as a side gig for seven years, and it continued to become more and more popular. We were getting creative with it, and when COVID-19 hit, we closed the shop for a full year and redesigned. Due to the demand, the Barreiros decided to commit to being strictly a teahouse. “All we do now is afternoon tea and counter service for croissants, sourdoughs, and to-go cups of tea and coffee,” Andrés says. “We took a typical afternoon-tea menu, broke it down into a hybrid multicourse menu, and got creative with it.”
Inside the quaint, yet utterly adorable, yellow house with green shutters and flower boxes adorning the windows, lie tables bedecked with white tablecloths, beloved blue-and-white china, and plants galore to bring a bit of the outside to the indoors. The tea service here is based on a prix fixe–menu to take one on a gastronomic journey. The food offerings are all vegetable-based, as the staff discovered that clients tended to like that there wasn’t meat on the menu, so they could consume more bites. The ingredients utilized are seasonal, changing six times per year, which prompts Andrés to tap into his artistic talents to reinvent his offerings. It is evident in most of the morsels that nature is an important inspiration for this particular teatime.
For $65 per guest, a twist on tradition will be served in multiple courses along with the requisite two-tiered tower to appear later in the culinary experience. Course 1 might consist of a seasonal comforting soup with pretty, edible bouquets that go inside the glass. Course 2, named “foliage,” could be a tri-colored gnocchi garnished with orange peel for bright color. Courses 3 and 4 may include a wonderfully fresh salad with seasonally apropos produce and homemade apple cider donuts stuffed with apple butter, a trademark in the fall. It is not until Course 5 (yes, you read that correctly!) that the traditional tea sandwiches and pastries arrive, so it is imperative to come to tea with a healthy hunger. For quenching your thirst with the extensive fine dining, the four original teas curated by Cavallini are still in rotation to this day: Peach Champagne Green Tea, Apricot Rose Black Tea, Ruby Cup Herbal (hibiscus, chamomile, yerba mate, citrus peel, and ginger), and Lavender Red Rooibos.
The gourmet menu and the charming atmosphere might make guests feel compelled to don a hat or to dress in fancy attire, but Andrés encourages everyone to “Come as you are!” He says he felt intimidated having tea other places. “It’s a super laid-back environment, but [tea is] served as if it’s in a posh restaurant.” From humble immigrant roots and a simple original vision of serving decadent cakes to the area, Potpourri Boulangerie is not only an example of the American dream but additionally provides a dreamy escape for those who are looking for a delicious and relaxing respite amid the suburbs of Dallas.
Potpourri Boulangerie is open Friday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Reservations are recommended.
