As a longtime New Orleans baker, Adrian Darby has learned some unassailable truths.
He knows his days will start before dawn, he knows his customers would revolt if he ever stopped making the praline pound cake and he knows Carnival season is his bread and butter.
This year, though, facing a Mardi Gras without parades and with much of the social landscape for the king cake tradition altered by the pandemic, Adrian’s Bakery is entering uncharted territory. See the full story on this year’s king cake season expectations here.
Darby got his start in the businesses as a baker at the Woolworths department store, once a landmark business in downtown New Orleans. In 2001, he and his wife Marcia Darby started their own business in Gentilly. Adrian’s Bakery grew to three locations with outposts Uptown and in Slidell before Hurricane Katrina hit.
Now, the whole business flows through the Adrian’s Bakery storefront in Gentilly.
In a normal Carnival season, 13,000 king cakes will come through this small bakery, built in a one-time Pizza Hut takeout location in a strip mall. Demand always ramps up at the end of the season, when the parades are rolling. Adrian’s can sell 1,000 a day during that final weekend of Carnival.
Adrian’s is part of a wide range of king cake makers across New Orleans, a roster that includes small neighborhood bakeries, large grocery stores, wholesale operations, restaurant pastry chefs and home-based businesses.
Worked deep into local Carnival rituals, king cake has also become craze in recent years, greatly expanding the number and types of products sold under its banner - covering everything from king cake stuffed with boudin or crawfish to king cake-flavored vodka and king cake jewelry.
Adrian’s takes a much more straight-ahead approach, feeding the appetites and tastes of its largely local clientele. King cake stuffed with cream cheese is about as exotic as it gets here.
The top seller is still the plain king cake, the most traditional king cake there is, with no icing, just a glittering top crust of purple, green and gold granulated sugar.
Darby says the appeal is in the dough itself, and also the continuity of tradition and flavor that his customers appreciate.
“I can make you any kind of cake you want, but around here, my people want the king cake they grew up eating,” he said.
Family continuity runs through Adrian’s Bakery too. Earvin
On a busy day in the lead up to Twelfth Night, Darby's son Earvin Larry Darby worked beside him, weighing piece of dough on an iron scale that is older than himself.
Through the day, the small work area tucked behind the sales floor saw a stream of relatives coming through on errands, assignments and visits.
One of them was Darby’s newest grandson, Marquise, just five months old. He marveled at a table full of king cakes from the arms of his father Myron Johnson.
“That’s the real king cake baby there,” Adrian Darby said.
The rest of the room broke up in laughter, then everyone got back to the work of keeping a family bakery cooking.
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Adrian Darby, left, watches as his son-in-law, Myron Johnson, holds his son, Marquise, five months, as the family makes king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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After another very early morning spent baking, Adrian Darby rests his arms in his apron inside Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly, a neighborhood bakery that relies on king cake sales. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Adrian's Bakery founder Adrian Darby makes king cakes at his neighborhood bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Marquise Johnson, age 5 months, looks over king cakes from the arms of this father Myron Johnson at the bakery his grandfather, Adrian Darby, left, founded 20 years ago in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Adrian Darby, back left, along with his son, Earvin Larry, center, and Rickie Williams prepare to cut and weigh dough to make king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Earvin Larry Darby weighs dough at his family's Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly as his father Adrian Darby watches over his shoulder. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Cutting and weighing dough to make king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Earvin Larry Darby pours out dough at his family's Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Earvin Larry, left, and Rickie Williams, right, pull from a giant ball of dough at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Hand prints mark the dought at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly, one of many New Orleans bakeries that rely on Carnival season king cake sales. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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King cake dough set aside to rise at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Adrian Darby, back left, and his son Earvin Larry, center, make king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Adrian Darby, center, and his son, Earvin Larry, right, make king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly, one of many New Orleans bakeries that rely on Carnival season king cake sales. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Purple, green, and gold sugar for king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Spreading out the purple, green, and gold sugar over king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Adrian Darby handles buckets of sugar at his Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly, one of many New Orleans bakeries that rely on Carnival season king cake sales. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Adrian Darby rolls out dough at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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King cakes ready for the oven at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly, one of many New Orleans bakeries that rely on Carnival season king cake sales. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Rickie Williams, back left, makes king cakes and other baked foods at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Adrian Darby, right, and Rickie Williams, back left, roll dough as they make king cakes and other baked foods at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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King cakes ready to go into the ovens at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly, one of many New Orleans bakeries that rely on Carnival season king cake sales. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly makes traditional king cakes, with nothing but Carnival-colored sugar on top. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Patricia Turner shopping for king cakes at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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Customers at Adrian's Bakery in Gentilly, one of many New Orleans bakeries that rely on Carnival season king cake sales.(Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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The Gentilly stripmall that Adrian's Bakery calls home are reflected on the front window. The neighborhood standby is known for king cakes during Carnival season. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
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For a Mardi Gras of unknowns, king cake follows tradition at Adrian's Bakery - NOLA.com
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