JACKSON, Wyo. — The Bunnery, one of Jackson’s longstanding bakery and breakfast institutions, entered a new chapter under new ownership earlier this summer.
Gia Carangi, who has lived in Jackson for about five years, officially took over ownership of the Bunnery on June 1. She steps into the role after more than three decades of ownership by Gerard and Dominique Yvernault, who bought the business in 1990. The bakery opened its doors as The Bunnery Bakery & Restaurant for the first time 10 years prior, in 1980.
Both Gerard and Dominique were originally from France. Gerard was born in Paris and Dominique from Chinon (a town near Tours in the Loire Valley).
The purchase brought together Carangi’s own background in baking and a desire to build a more permanent life in Jackson.
“I come from the working class, you know?” Carangi shared with Buckrail. “And I got here on my own. … [And I was asking] what can I do next? What are my options?”
She explained that she had faced the all-too-familiar Jackson job hustle and housing shuffle. She worked at Gym22, was store manager at Kemosabe, and wrangled for the Snake River Sporting Club. It took her a year to find housing to move here initially, and then she moved several times since her arrival in 2021.
Hailing from Philadelphia, she grew up in a bakery family. Her parents ran Carangi Bread Company at S. 13th St. and Oregon Ave. in the heart of South Philadelphia, which she described as a major wholesale bread supplier to local sandwich shops (cheesesteak, anyone?) as well as a small retail bakery selling bread, pastries and coffee.
When asked about how she has been feeling since the purchase, Carangi expressed that she didn’t expect to buy a bakery and follow in her family’s tradition, but that she was glad to have found a way to be part of the community. “It’s still pretty surreal,” she told Buckrail.
Carangi said she came across the Bunnery listing fairly unexpectedly, but that it aligned well with her goals of finding long-term stability in Jackson while also contributing to the community. Her goal, she said, was not to dramatically remake the business, but rather to preserve what has made it a local mainstay while injecting some of her own Italian roots.
That approach seems to align with what the Yvernaults wanted.
Tony Labbé, the son-in-law of the previous owners and previous manager of the business, told Buckrail that “the hope was to pass it on to someone who would continue the Bunnery [as it was].” And when they discovered Carangi, it seemed like a “fabulous fit, and … a great steward to carry on the tradition of the Bunnery.”
Labbé went on to explain that Gerard Yvernault had been diagnosed with leukemia in late 2024 or early 2025, and that the decision to sell followed as the family began thinking about the business’ future. He said that Gerard lived the true American Dream, and “liked to say that he arrived in the U.S. … with $200 in his pocket.” He worked in the port wine industry in New York City before moving to Jackson. Gerard died in August 2025.
The property on which the Bunnery sits is owned by the Gill family. According to Labbé, the choice to keep it local and family-run was preferred to over development of the property.
“It’s still a family business,” Labbé said.
