There’s more to going from a banker to a baker than losing that “n.” That’s particularly the case for Pierre Henry, who, with his wife, Nelly Henry, opened Bree’osh Café on Coast Village Road last October, the culmination of a circuitous route from Paris to Montecito.
It began in 2012, when Pierre left his customer-relationship management position with a bank. “I wanted to do what I wanted,” said Pierre, who then enrolled at the prestigious Ferrandi culinary school and worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant. “I wanted to work with my hands.”
The Henrys originally intended to open their own establishment in South America, as Nelly went to school in Mexico and loved it. “We were in Latin America for six months, going through Chile, Peru, and Colombia, but it didn’t happen,” he said. “The real estate market is crazy — you would pay a really high rent plus an 11 percent increase a year.”