CULTURE

Belle’s Bread: Sweetest Shop in Japan Marketplace

The French-inspired Japanese bakery is celebrating its 10th year

By Nicole Rasul | Photography by Rachel Joy Barehl

At Belle’s Bread, a Japanese bakery in northwest Columbus, the aroma of sweet-meets-savory greets the nose immediately upon entry. The shop’s plethora of breads, pastries and other confections—more than 45 in all—are baked in-house daily beginning at 4am. There’s a bit of something for every palate, from Instagram-worthy Nutella-filled kitties to sophisticated, flaky croissants that rival those hailing from the best French patisserie.

Pre-pandemic, the shop’s seating area buzzed with a United Nations of guests vying for space to savor coffee, tea and baked goods. These days, however, tables and chairs are put away and French music chimes in the background while guests in face masks queue to pay for to-go fare. Construction is underway to house additional retail products, including sandwiches, in the former dining space.

Hailed in 2018 as “one of America’s best Japanese bakeries” by Food & Wine magazine, Belle’s Bread was launched in 2011 as the fifth business (there are six in total) at Japan Marketplace at Kenny and Old Henderson Roads. The sprawling slice of Japan is the three-decade-old brainchild of Takashi Takenaka and includes several Japanese restaurants, a grocery, the bakery and a gift shop. Akai Hana, the enterprise’s first institution, opened in 1987 as Restaurant Japan. It’s the cornerstone of Takenaka’s complex and remains one of the most loved and lauded Japanese fine-dining options in Columbus.

Takenaka hails from Japan and emigrated to the U.S. in 1972, settling in New York City. It was there that he met his wife, Francoise, a French immigrant. An entrepreneur at heart, Takenaka wished to open a restaurant and researched locations for his potential business in his new homeland. He stumbled on Columbus and, after studying the region’s demographics and business environment, he and Francoise moved west. Marysville’s Honda automotive plant and its significant Japanese expat population supplied a bevy of first customers. Now, more than 30 years later and with an American populace swept off its feet by Japanese cuisine, Takenaka’s businesses are consistently booming, embraced and treasured by the Central Ohio community.

“It’s a nice combination to have both of them in charge of this place since it incorporates their backgrounds,” says Mika Lecklider, the Takenakas’ daughter. She’s the manager of Belle’s Bread, which borrows traditions from France and Japan. Though bread has a long history in Japan, the root of the options vended in most Japanese bakeries today can be traced to a baking culture that exploded in the country after World War II and was heavily inspired by French technique.

Mika Lecklider

Demonstrating the fusion of the two cuisines, pastries like cream puffs, matcha roll cake and mango mousse line the cold case near the checkout. Nearby, venerable loaves of pillowy squareshaped white bread, known as shokupan, reside on shelves next to French-inspired croissants and Danishes. The shokupan at Belle’s Bread is made with fresh cream in a slow fermenting process that includes a low-speed knead. A slew of savory baked options like ham and onion rolls and curry and boiled egg donuts round out the selection, along with frank rolls—a hot dog wrapped in dough and baked, which Lecklider says is a modern Japanese bakery staple.

In launching Belle’s Bread, Takenaka engaged the services of a trained Japanese baker working in New York City to instruct the shop’s employees. “My dad likes to have professionals come and teach us,” Lecklider explains. “He still visits regularly to make sure everything is as it should be and to ensure that we’re not taking any shortcuts,” she adds about the chef.

The shop’s 20 bakers—sourced from the Central Ohio community— match Belle’s Bread’s clientele with an international array connected by a common theme of the appreciation of craft. “We try and find people who have a passion for home baking,” Lecklider says about the group, whose members have roots in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, Japan, China and Mexico.

Lecklider says many guests are attracted to the shop’s desserts due to their lack of overly saccharine attributes. She explains that in Europe, the Middle East and much of Asia, desserts traditionally feature less sugar compared to American offerings such as cupcakes laden with dense, sweet frosting. That makes Belle’s Bread’s confections especially appealing to those hailing from these parts of the world, not just Japan.

“In the beginning, my dad was really tailoring things to the Japanese customer,” Lecklider says about Japan Marketplace and its 30-year history. “Now his focus is the general public—Americans, Asians, everyone—but with high standards so Japanese people know that everything is made the right way culturally.”

“My dad thought Japan Marketplace wouldn’t be complete without a Japanese bakery for families to buy their bread and cakes,” Lecklider adds. “It makes the shopping center that much more exciting to visit, especially for kids.”

To see the menu and get more information on Belle’s Bread, visit bellesbread.com.

Nicole Rasul is a freelance writer covering food and agriculture. In addition to Edible Columbus her work has appeared in Edible Indy, Columbus Monthly, Civil Eats, The Counter, Modern Farmer, Eater, Salon, Forbes.com and others. You can read her writing at nicolerasul.com and follow her on Twitter at @rasulwrites.