Boulangerie Christophe

The storefront at 1422 Wisconsin Avenue NW opened in February 2017 and is named for Christophe Roux, a third-generation baker who grew up near Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera. Roux’s family baking lineage runs several generations deep in the Var region of Provence, and the Georgetown bakery carries that lineage directly into its products. Behind the display case, which holds baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche, and a rotating selection of tarts, the kitchen operates on the logic of a real French boulangerie: the bread is made from scratch, the dough is treated with care, and the finished products look like what they are.

The bakery’s origin story involves Didier Martin, who co-founded the Georgetown shop with Christophe and Benjamin Roux after his business partner at a nearby salon lamented the absence of a proper bakery in the neighborhood. Martin brought together the Roux family and Sylvie and Stephane Grattier, who became co-owners. Stephane Grattier serves as head baker and is the person most responsible for the baguette that has earned the shop its wider reputation. The baguette at Boulangerie Christophe won the Triptee World Bread Award in 2020 and again in 2022, a recognition that brought national attention to a shop that Georgetown regulars had already made a morning institution.

Adjusting the recipe for American conditions required three weeks of testing when the Georgetown location opened. The flour is different, the water chemistry is different, and the ambient temperature in a Wisconsin Avenue kitchen is not the same as in Saint-Tropez. Christophe and Benjamin Roux spent those weeks reformulating until the bread matched what they make at home. The tarte tropézienne on the menu represents a deeper family connection: the original recipe for the filled brioche pastry was created at a Saint-Tropez patisserie where Christophe’s father once worked as a young baker. The recipe came down through the family and now appears on the Georgetown menu, one of the few places in the United States where it is available in its traditional form.

The Georgetown location has a cozy backyard patio that opens in warmer months, giving the shop an outdoor dimension that most Wisconsin Avenue storefronts lack. Pastries and espresso on the patio are the standard order for the morning crowd, which tends to include Georgetown University students, nearby residents, and the occasional visitor who tracked the award-winning baguette claim to its source. A second location opened at Cabin John Village in Potomac in May 2022, extending the shop’s reach into the Maryland suburbs.

The Wisconsin Avenue address does not have dedicated parking; street parking on Wisconsin and the surrounding blocks is metered and competitive during the morning and weekend rush. The shop is accessible from the Georgetown Circulator stop on Wisconsin. For a first visit, a baguette and a cafe au lait establishes the baseline of what the kitchen is capable of. The tarte tropézienne, when available, makes the visit more interesting.