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In one of 2023’s most shocking restaurant closures, Sweet Lady Jane shuttered all six locations on December 31, 2023. But in a stunning turn of events, Eater has confirmed that the 35-year-old bakery was independently acquired in mid-February, and its new owner has plans to reopen all outlets — including in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Calabasas, Encino, West Hollywood, and San Fernando — in the coming months.
Sweet Lady Jane’s new owner is Julie Ngu, the CEO of Pacific French Bakery which has four Southern California locations. Ngu and her family had no prior association with Sweet Lady Jane before buying the business on February 16, 2024. A representative for Sweet Lady Jane’s most recent owner verified that Ngu purchased the bakery’s intellectual property, recipes, branding, website, social media handles, and equipment. The same representative also shared that multiple other parties were interested in acquiring Sweet Lady Jane, but Ngo’s extensive experience and knowledge made her the best candidate to bring Sweet Lady Jane back to life.
A huge part of Sweet Lady Jane’s success was its signature Triple Berry cake, a three-layer yellow butter cake filled with lightly sweetened whipped cream and three kinds of fresh berries. “I played with the idea of having just one bakery,” says Ngu. “But if we’re gonna do it, we need to do it right. I want as many people to have access to the Triple Berry cake.”
Though Sweet Lady Jane was one of Southern California’s most popular bakeries, it experienced financial difficulties since early 2020. At least 10 different people took on leadership roles after founder Jane Lockhart stepped away from operations in 2020. In an email announcing the stores' closures on December 31, 2023, ownership wrote that: “Sales have not been high enough to continue doing business in the state of California, allowing us to service our lease obligations and pay our treasured employees a living wage.”
On January 13, 2024, the Los Angeles Times reported that the former owners of Sweet Lady Jane faced a class-action lawsuit filed by an employee alleging that wage theft occurred before the bakery closed permanently. The complaints will be handled through the California court system and its new owner will not assume any responsibility for alleged past actions or the former owner’s debt.
Over the last few weeks, Ngu has been putting the word out that she’s hiring, posting a notice on the window of the Encino location. She had no access to former Sweet Lady Jane employees, but the word spread quickly, and Ngu has already rehired a handful of former workers. She’s also actively posting on social media that the bakery will open imminently, using the hashtag #JaneIsBack. Ngu hopes to open all the stores gradually over the next few weeks while renegotiating building leases, setting up new utilities, and securing valid permits.
Decades ago, Ngu’s grandparents immigrated from China to Vietnam and opened up a bakery there before moving to the United States after the Vietnam War. They opened Pacific French Bakery in 1986 and quickly found a solid customer base in Southern California’s Central American community.
Ngu recently spoke with Lockhart, who opened the first Sweet Lady Jane on Melrose in 1988. “She gave us tips and it felt like the passing of the baton,” says Ngu. “In college, I went to the location on Melrose and thought that one day maybe I could be a bakery [owner] like Sweet Lady Jane. We want to bring back the old spirit as much as we can.”
