After decades of creating elegant wedding cakes, catering social and corporate gatherings, and turning out delicate eclairs and towering croquembouches, the French Gourmet is calling it quits after selling its Turquoise Street property to a Los Angeles developer.

While the sale closed in late September, the bakery and restaurant have remained open, but the plan now is to cease operations Jan. 4, said Michel Malecót, who opened the business in Pacific Beach in 1989, 10 years after launching The French Laundry on Pearl Street in La Jolla. Up until about 1998, Malecót continued to operate both bakeries.

Now in his 70s, Malecót said he hadn’t been looking to sell his north Pacific Beach business, but when he was approached a few years ago by the developer, Kalonymus LLC, to purchase his Fren

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