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It’s becoming an increasingly common pandemic-time strategy for bringing in extra income while standard dining is limited: Existing restaurants are launching special takeout- and delivery-friendly menus or sometimes even completely new, independently branded concepts. Take the Big Night Entertainment Group, for one, which added two brands under its umbrella in recent months — Bao Chicka Wow and Wicked Wings — which each lacks its own storefront and instead is delivered from the kitchens of existing Big Night properties.
The latest addition to this trend is Turenne, which opened today, November 11, inside of Tim and Bronwyn Wiechmann’s T&B Pizza in Somerville’s Union Square (251 Washington St.). Open only for takeout and delivery, Turenne is a French-inspired bakery and cafe that specializes in wood-fired bagels made in T&B’s gorgeous pizza oven, which comes from a partnership between Maine Wood Heat Co. and French company Le Panyol and is a popular choice among some of the best pizzerias in town.
The bagels take some cues from Montreal-style bagels — the wood-fired process, mainly, and a touch of honey in the mix. Available in plain, sesame, poppy, or pretzel-everything (perhaps a nod to sibling restaurant Bronwyn’s excellent pretzels), the bagels can be topped with combinations such as kielbasa, a fried egg, and smoked gouda; beet-cured salmon gravlax with cream cheese, red onion, cucumber, capers, and dill; or arugula, brie de Pommerie, tomato, and olive oil.
Turenne doesn’t only sell bagels; there are also some pastries and sweets, including a chocolate-stuffed pretzel croissant, a chocolate mousse with poached cherries, and a roasted kuri squash brioche feuilletée (puff pastry). Plus, there are salads, each served with wood-oven ciabatta; smoothies; a daily tea special; a rotating coffee selection from Sudbury-based Karma Coffee Roasters; and a weekly changing wine dinner.
The wine dinner, available in the evening Wednesday through Sunday, costs $95 for two people and includes a wood-fired bread basket, appetizer, main course, and cheese or dessert, with a bottle of wine.
Turenne — named for a street in Paris where Tim Wiechmann once lived, as he told The Boston Globe — is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; online ordering is available.
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