Meet the man behind the treats customers can’t get enough of at new MS Coast bakery
Alex Lacy roamed around his Bay St. Louis bakery to show off all the treats.
“People love these,” he said, pointing toward the French eclairs. “Hey guys,” he called to two regulars who stopped in for morning pastries.
Lacy and his baker, Brooke Craig, run the new Harvest Bay Artisan Bakery at 295 U.S. 90 in Bay St. Louis, near Froogel’s grocery store. Craig makes so many treats each day that Lacy couldn’t decide which to recommend to customers.
His products include fresh bread, cinnamon rolls, muffins, croissants, Christmas pies and cannolis, which he proudly said are made with “proper ricotta.”
“It’s all good,” he said.
Lacy’s path to the Mississippi Coast began in his birthplace: Dublin, Ireland. He worked in West African oil and gas, then transferred to New Orleans, where he met his wife, whose family is from Bay St. Louis.
But the bakery was still years off. The couple lost their home during Hurricane Katrina, then moved to the Netherlands and spent seven years enjoying the bakeries, butchers and cheese shops in Europe.
“That’s where I really learned about fresh food,” Lacy said.
Work transferred him to Houston, but he spent spring break in March 2020 in Bay St. Louis, and ended up rebuilding his home and staying for good.
But Bay St. Louis had a problem: there was no fresh bread. After Serious Bread Bakery on Main Street closed, Lacy decided the city needed something new.
He started Harvest Bay with a simple concept: to make fresh bread every day and sell loaves more than a day old at half-price. The bakery makes French sourdough, Italian bread, dinner rolls, flavored flat breads and their own Cajun bread, which Lacy said is Italian bread with Cajun seasoning.
Harvest Bay is decked out in holiday decorations this December, and Lacy and Craig said they will start selling Christmas cookies next week. The bakery is also taking orders for Christmas pies. Flavors include apple, cherry, triple berry, pecan, apple cranberry and more. All Christmas orders should be placed by Dec. 20.
Harvest Bay is open Tuesday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It is open Sundays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m and closed Mondays.
