It's at Guglhupf, a new Durham bakery and patisserie that the owners say will bring Europe's bread and fine-pastry tradition to the Bull City. The bakery's owners, Hartmut Jahn and Claudia Kemmet-Cooper, are native Germans who left corporate jobs in Munich to launch a bakery overseas in a place called the Triangle that they found on the Internet.

"We tried to find an area just coming into its prime, and we wanted to go somewhere fun," said Kemmet-Cooper, who lived eight years in the United States before returning to Germany in 1995.

"Our biggest goal is to make it something individual -- what people would think of as a real bakery," she said. "This will be the village bakery."

Guglhupf is scheduled to start serving up fresh breads and pastries Saturday at 7:30 a.m. in its renovated 2,600-square-foot space at 2706 Chapel Hill Blvd. The retail and wholesale bakery is at the rear of a red-brick building adjacent to the popular Foster's Market.

Word has already gotten out about one of Guglhupf's bakery items.

"I understand their croissants are mouthwatering," said Ted Conner, vice president of business/economic development at the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce.

Kemmet-Cooper said Guglhupf's croissants will be made from scratch and will be the real thing with 133 levels of dough folded on top of one another with a sheeter machine brought from Germany. "When you pull it apart, it should unravel from the inside," she said.

The sheeter wasn't the only thing the couple brought over. They packed up a 40-foot overseas container with German baking equipment such as their stone hearth oven, mixers and various Guglhupf -- the German word for cake forms. Guglhupf will offer all kinds of artesian and specialty breads and baguette bread, a long, thin loaf of bread that will be the bakery's signature item, Kemmet-Cooper said. They'll also offer plenty of pastries, including puff pastries and Danishes made by head baker Christope Gaumet. Then there's pies, tarts and, next spring, tortes.

"All fresh and very light, not like people are used to -- they'll have a definite European touch," said Jahn, who has traded in his software consultant title for a baker's apron.

The Carrboro couple have been working since July to transform their space into a gourmet specialty retail and wholesale bakery. On Tuesday, the couple were still busy preparing for Saturday's grand opening.

Eventually, they hope to establish an enclosed patio area outside the bakery where patrons can enjoy their pastries at tables. "It'll come, but we've got to grow into it," Kemmet-Cooper said.

The Durham area has proven to be a draw for the gourmet food market, with Francesca's Dessert Caffe on Ninth Street, Fowler's Gourmet Food Store and Foster's Market all thriving.