Lubellas offers a taste of France in Casa View

Casa View locals don’t have to fly to Paris to get a taste of French-style pastries in a charming and sophisticated shop.

Tucked away in the shopping center on Ferguson Road between Pet Supplies Plus and Metro by T-Mobile, Lubellas Patisserie could be where you meet your mother for Quiche Lorraine and a side of mixed greens salad ($14.25). Or, you could sit by the big windows framed by stark white drapes with your lover and share a slice of chocolate cake, iced with perfect swirls of whipped cream and strawberry jam ($5.75).

But if you go to Lubellas and can only order one menu item, get a croissant, either a simple but delicious butter one ($4.99) or a fancy and sweet pistachio one ($6.75), among other variations. These made-from-scratch croissants are almost as long as the diameter of the dinner plate they are served on. They are exactly how a croissant should be — flaky on the outside, warm and soft on the inside.

The croissants themselves are a symbol of the food quality standards at Lubellas, set by owners and married couple Maria Becerra and Ismael Trejo. Only a certain amount is made each day, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. This means the owners have had to ask customers to wait or come back another time, but that’s a price they are willing to pay to provide fresh, high-quality food that’s worth the menu price.

“Our croissants come fresh,” Trejo says. “We take our time.”

Trejo and Becerra have found that some customers don’t mind waiting for fresh food. In fact, Lubellas’ supporters have been integral to the restaurant’s success from the beginning. Trejo and Becerra, who have worked in Dallas restaurants for years, renovated the space on Ferguson Road to launch Lubellas and had help from “really nice people.” When they opened Lubellas a few years ago, word of mouth from followers and neighbors made the debut a big hit. People from all over the Dallas area patronize Lubellas, even if they have to travel far to get there, Trejo says. Customers have also donated eggs and Splenda packets to Lubellas.

“They really care about this place,” Trejo says.

Around 2009, Becerra didn’t become a pastry chef because it was her lifelong dream. It was more of a natural progression of her career in the restaurant industry. She started out as a hostess, then as a server and studied at Dallas College’s El Centro Campus. From there, she worked as a pastry chef at the Italian restaurant Arcodoro & Pomodoro. Likewise, Trejo began his career as a dishwasher and rose through the ranks to become sous chef de cuisine at Tramontana alongside James Neel. He also worked as head chef at Al Biernat’s.

Trejo and Becerra, like many food service workers, lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Becerra started baking at home in their apartment — ”Cheesecakes, cakes … whatever fit in the oven,” she says.

When they moved to a new house where they had more space, Becerra started making cakes for weddings and quinceañeras in addition to supplying restaurants.

The idea to start Lubellas came when Trejo noticed an empty storefront in the Casa View Shopping Center while he and Becerra were taking their girls to school. The couple decided to inquire and eventually signed a lease for the space. They opened Lubellas a year later.

The Lubellas menu also includes meals for breakfast and lunch as well as pastries and sweets, like Grand Marnier-infused French toast ($14.75), a brisket burger on homemade chipotle brioche ($14.75) and a lemon tart ($5.99). While Becerra oversees the pastry creation at Lubellas, Trejo is more involved with the savory items on the menu. The couple is also not afraid to collaborate with each other, Trejo says. Once, when a batch of croissants turned out wrong, the couple decided to use them to make the “double breakfast croissant” with scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese and maple-mustard sauce.

When they started Lubellas, not only did Becerra and Trejo face the challenge of running a business, but they also underestimated the amount of renovation work that needed to be done. Asbestos had to be removed, and they had to install a new air conditioning unit, plumbing and electrical system.

“It was a big surprise,” Becerra says. “We thought we were just going to be like, ‘Oh, we’ll just move this wall; we’ll paint here; we’ll put the floor in; we’re ready to go.’ No.”

Trejo and Becerra started with about 1,600 square feet for Lubellas and doubled their space last year to include more room for the dining area and the kitchen.

“We saw what the customers wanted,” Becerra says about the expansion.

Trejo and Becerra were aiming for a French-style decor inside of Lubellas. Walls are painted either white or muted blue, and the tables are designed with a white marble motif. The seats and backs of the chairs inside the restaurant are made of a woven material that mirrors the light/dark contrast of the walls by combining a cream color with a hint of blue or green. Pink and yellow flowers housed in white vases that resemble the bottom half of a woman’s face are spread throughout the dining room.

“We wanted something nicer here in the neighborhood,” Becerra says.

The moniker “Lubellas” is a combination of the names of Trejo and Becerra’s daughters, Luciana and Isabella. Becerra says the girls, who are grade school-aged, like to brag about their parents owning a bakery and offer up their mother’s cookie-baking services to their peers. Despite their daughters’ jovial attitudes toward Lubellas, Trejo and Becerra say it has been difficult to balance running the patisserie with parenthood, especially when they first started.

“Whenever you work in the industry, it’s your second house,” Becerra says. “You live more in the restaurant where you work than probably in your house because you spend a lot of hours.”

Patrons are the people who should feel at home in Lubellas, not necessarily like they are in a restaurant and have to rush their stay to free up a table, Trejo says.

“I want you to just come sit down, take the time — two, three hours,” he says. “Here, we don’t push any customer.”

As Lubellas’ patron base grows, Trejo and Becerra want to continue to build up their business through selling alcohol and possibly opening another store.

“If we open a second location, I know it’s going to be a very big hit,” Trejo says.

Lubellas Patisserie 10323 Ferguson Road, 469.978.1801, lubellaspatisserie.com