In 2011, husband and wife duo Anne Lorraine Ng and Jeremy Mandrell opened the first Bakery Lorraine location with business partner Charlie Biedenharn.
The French-style boulangerie built a loyal following, racked up national accolades and expanded into six locations. However, in 2024, Ng and Mandrell parted ways with the business they helped create.
While the couple’s latest project, ButternNubs, is rooted in baking, it’s a departure from their brick-and-mortar venture. The new company bakes and packages a French brown-butter sablé cookie akin to a shortbread.
The company currently offers two flavors: original and salted chocolate. The style of cookie dates back to 17th-century France, but Ng and Mandrell found a way to modernize the recipe for 2026.
Their cookies are baked to order, offering a sophisticated spin on a classic consumer packaged good. They’re available to order nationwide.
How long have you been in the food industry?
Ng: 20 years
Mandrell: 20 years
Ng: So, 40 years collectively.
Why ButterNubs?
Mandrell: ButterNubs was born from a desire to create a business that worked around our lives instead of the other way around.
Ng: The bakery was all-consuming. You almost worked like you were on call. This new project helped us continue baking by keeping up a work-life balance. Jeremy and I realized we loved building things together and this felt like the perfect next step.
Can you speak to your decision to part ways with Bakery Lorraine?
Mandrell: It was an amicable departure.
Ng: We’re very proud of the work we did there. It wasn’t just a bakery — it was a community. It’s really showing now in the new business. Loyal customers familiar with our style of baking were eager to try our new cookies. We have more orders than we expected! We have some other flavors on deck, but we’re still trying to get the hang of this new business. It’s just the two of us.
Tell us more about ButterNubs.
Ng: It was serendipity, if you will. Jeremy came up with the recipe. We were working at Petit Coquin one night and he pulled the recipe out of thin air. I had the idea to turn it into a business. He came up with the name ButterNubs.
Mandrell: We’re still using the classic pastry techniques we’ve learned over the years, baking the French way. The other side of this: we noticed a real lack of packaged snacks in the grocery store that you could have picked up in a bakery. We didn’t want to skimp on our standards for quality just because this is a consumer packaged good. We also wanted to create something that had a greater reach than a storefront.
Ng: As pastry chefs, it was vital to stay true to the high standards we set for ourselves, even though we’ve transitioned to consumer packaged goods. We use real vanilla beans, King Arthur flour and fresh butter. We wanted to put that care into each cookie. No additives or garbage. We bake all of the cookies ourselves, package them, everything.
Will there ever be a ButterNubs storefront, or do you plan to keep it strictly online?
Mandrell: We have considered a pop-up but not a storefront.
Ng: We would be down to do different community events, though. The whole point of ButterNubs was to stay away from the on-call nature of the storefront. Now we can work together and do things at our own pace, on our own terms.
What are your favorite San Antonio restaurants to visit after a long day at work?
Ng: We love Pumpers and Leche de Tigre. There’s also Sichuan House and Little Death. All of those spots feel so real and true to us in the food and beverage industry.
Any last thoughts on what it means to work in the food industry in San Antonio?
Mandrell: It’s a tough business. It’s so hard. I want people to keep doing it. We were super lucky with Bakery Lorraine. So my thoughts on that? Support your local businesses, and not just on the weekends.
Ng: It’s a tough business, but there’s so much talent in this town. I want to see more homegrown talent. We want more San Antonio chefs showcased. Let’s support local.
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