Bigger than The Breadbox

At The Breadbox, the newly opened restaurant-cafe on Essen Lane, you can smell the love in the air. Or perhaps that’s just the smell of some of chef-owner Nicole Tymon’s handmade sourdough baking in the oven—it’s hard to tell the difference. Serving up a variety of cleverly constructed sandwiches, paninis and wraps, many of which are served on fresh house-made white, wheat and sourdough hoagies, there’s something on The Breadbox’s menu to appeal to everyone. An LSU graduate, Tymon paid her way through school waitressing and managing at various restaurants. Although she studied to become a schoolteacher, she jokes, “I just couldn’t seem to shake the restaurant industry.” Her love for food started even earlier than college. She grew up in New Orleans and was in her grandmother’s kitchen helping to cook “pretty much since I could walk,” she says. The Breadbox started out as a small catering business, but Tymon grew it slowly, opening the doors to the brick-and-mortar café just three weeks ago. Her early background in cooking shows through in many of the dishes, Tymon says, as several recipes were taken from family traditions. Still others were inspired by trips she took across the United States, taking note of flavor combinations that work especially well together. Click here to read more.