What’s next for Carole Griffin, the newly-retired founder of Continental Bakery + Chez Lulu

Walking into Carole Griffin’s house is like walking into a museum or an antique store. Actually, it’s a lot like walking into one of her charming cafés in English Village, Chez Lulu and Continental Bakery.

Her colorful life and warm personality are so baked into the two that it’s hard to imagine them existing without her. That’s why earlier this year when Griffin announced her decision to hand over the two businesses to new owner David Griner, some began to speculate what the future would hold.

We sat down with Carole to talk about her philosophy for food and life, her legacy in the Birmingham community and what’s next.

Meet Carole Griffin

Carole’s calling as a baker came as a happy accident.

After studying French and English at Rice University, she decided she wanted to switch gears from academia to something a little more hands-on—midwifery. It was in preparation for midwife training that she took a job at a local bakery.

“I didn’t really expect it to hit me like it did, but I suddenly was just so in love with it. I think it has a lot of similarities to bringing children into the world. You’re shepherding a living product, a living being, basically all of these little spores working in tandem.

Eventually, you are sort of birthing a beautiful new thing. I think all of that felt poetically, spiritually and sort of functionally what I was looking for. After that, I shifted gears and really, really applied myself to baking. It was the first thing I had discovered that really hit me on all levels.”

Carole Griffin, Founder, Continental Bakery + Chez Lulu

With her newfound love for baking, Carole spent the next few years traveling and trying her hand at developing new recipes. It was when she returned to Birmingham after nearly a decade that she started to consider opening her own bakery.

At only 25 years old, Carole headed back to Birmingham with a business proposal and a mission.

“I came back and sort of saw this sort of burgeoning urban movement happening in Birmingham. I thought this is really cool, and I want to be a part of this. I just felt like Birmingham was really launching.”

Carole Griffin, Founder, Continental Bakery + Chez Lulu

In 1985, Continental Bakery opened its doors in English Village.

According to Carole, her plan aimed to break even in the first six months of business. Instead, it broke even in just three weeks.

Food that speaks for itself

Carole hesitates to call herself an artist, even with her experience as a musician in bands like The Janes, Sugar La-La’s and Marathon. Instead, she considers herself a keen observer of life, a perspective that translates to her rustic, no-frills approach to cooking.

Her philosophy toward food is simple: celebrate good ingredients and let them speak for themselves.

“What I see with cooking sometimes is that a lot of chefs will try to reinvent the wheel or put their personality on something. I don’t think that’s bad, but there’s something important about noticing what’s happening, rather than forcing things to happen.

I think there’s a real gift in letting things speak for themselves. It’s really interesting to me to pay attention to what the food is trying to say. What’s beautiful about this food, and how can I frame that or accent it, rather than get all up on top of it and try to make something impressive or special?“

Carole Griffin, Founder, Continental Bakery + Chez Lulu

Her interior design style, on the other hand, is best described as maximalist—from the hanging swag lamps to the lush colorful walls that decorate Chez Lulu, more is always more.

Among menu highlights like the almond croissant, romesco and tarragon chicken salad, the crown jewel of Continental Bakery is the wild yeast sourdough—far-and-wide the bakery’s most popular and unique bread, which takes 48 hours to produce.

According to Carole, she looked to chefs like Alice Waters and Lionel Poilâne to develop the recipe.

“I would take little bits from cookbooks and write them down, and then read another little hint, and then put them together the best I could. I think that is why, actually, the bread that we make is so unusual even by standards of anybody else’s sourdough bread, because I did not follow any one particular idea.

That thing is a miraculous, beautiful thing that I will never, ever grow weary of. I just love the everything about it, the character of the crust, the crumb, the size of it—it’s really beautiful.”

Carole Griffin, Founder, Continental Bakery + Chez Lulu

Passing the torch to David Griner

About a year before the 40th anniversary of Continental Bakery and Chez Lulu, Carole started to toss around the idea of retirement. She was just waiting for the right person to come along.

Just over nine months ago, she received a job application from David Griner.

When David joined as a baker at Continental Bakery, he was taking a sabbatical from his decades-long career in marketing and journalism.

“I was not looking to create something new in my own vision. I was looking to learn and to find a place where I could really embrace my passion for baking, and I found all that here.”

David Griner, Owner, Continental Bakery + Chez Lulu

A co-founder of The Creative Ladder and former writer and editor at Adweek and Luckie, David jokingly assured Carole this wasn’t just an Eat, Pray, Love experience—he was ready to work.

“His arrival at the bakery was such kismet. David has an optimistic and solution-forward way of looking at things. I want the work to be dignified and I want people to treat each other with respect. He had a gift for that, so he really got my attention.

In my conversations with [my partner] Shea about possibly passing the bakery on, it just seemed like we didn’t want to put it on the market. I couldn’t imagine how I would pass off this child of mine, and David came to mind. We thought maybe he might be interested, and because he just seemed to be a kindred spirit in terms of his basic philosophy toward life.”

Carole Griffin, Founder, Continental Bakery + Chez Lulu

By the time Carole announced her retirement in February, David had already been at the helm of operations for about three months.

“I don’t want to change anything that makes this place special and makes it what it is. Carole is interwoven in every single inch of this place. I don’t want to do anything that ever makes people feel that I am unweaving her from this experience.

20 years from now, I want for people to come in and still feel Carole’s presence and her influence on everything.”

David Griner, Owner, Continental Bakery + Chez Lulu

So, what’s next for Carole Griffin? Traveling with her partner Shea, spending time with family, engaging with her community and embracing a new season of life.

And who knows? The next time you visit Continental Bakery or Chez Lulu, you might just spot Carole enjoying the experience from the other side of the counter.

Are you a big fan of Continental Bakery and Chez Lulu? Tell us your favorite memory of this special place by posting a comment on our social media. Remember to tag us at @bhamnow!