Continental Bakery

Continental Bakery opened on Cahaba Road in Birmingham's English Village in 1985, founded by Carole Griffin, a Birmingham native who had studied French and English at Rice University and considered midwifery before deciding to open a bakery instead. She'd spent years traveling before returning home with the idea of creating a neighborhood gathering spot built around artisanal bread and pastry of a quality Birmingham hadn't seen -- Griffin had projected the shop would break even within six months; it did so in three weeks. Ten years later she added Chez Lulu, a French cafe next door, expanding the block into a combined bakery-and-restaurant destination that's remained a fixture of English Village since. The bakery still turns out made-from-scratch, hand-shaped breads and pastries daily, prepared by its own bakers rather than shipped in, with online ordering now available for pickup or delivery. Griffin ran both businesses for four decades before retiring in 2025, handing over a shop whose founding premise -- a place for neighbors to trade ideas over good bread -- has stayed intact since the doors first opened under her ownership in the 1980s.