Much has changed in Edina over the past 20 years but one baker-caterer has remained a constant local fixture. Patisserie Margo creates namesake soups, sandwiches, quiches, breads, rolls, muffins, cookies, cakes and tarts. With Margo Bredeson at the helm, the mastery of a European chef is assured.
Nowadays, it’s rare for many bakery owners to make the time, but Bredeson knows her regular customers by name, and they’re treated like family. Customers drop in for coffee, treats and conversation. A sense of small town life resides here. “Edina’s still a community where neighbors talk to each other,” Bredeson says. Three years ago, when Bredeson had to relocate, customers loosened their purse strings to help keep Patisserie Margo in Edina. The business opened new doors at its current Valley View Road location.
Her business has grown quietly by word of mouth, a reward befitting for a place that consistently turns out palate-tempting sweets and savories. The cinnamon-laced croissant morning buns and cheery Christmas-red cherry tarts are Edina food legends. Everything is made by hand in keeping with Swiss pastry traditions Bredeson learned from a master baker in Madison, Wis. during college. Decades of work at prominent Twin Cities restaurants and running her own catering business perfected her craft.
Bredeson’s Edina presence started on Gus Young Lane in 1998 with a wholesale shop dubbed the “Now Open” bakery for lack of a business sign. Curious people would pop in and sometimes get a free sample of whatever Bredeson was creating that day for her catering and restaurant clients: a cookie, a croissant, slice of quiche, etc. A fan base grew and was hungry for more. The retail shop was a natural evolution.
