Creating the Paris Market Cafe

I always knew I wanted the cafe to be a part of our Broughton store when we were first dreaming while walking through the empty space. I closed my eyes and pictured woven chairs under striped awnings with one of our staff precariously balancing a tray on one hand while serving fresh croissants with the other. This is the world I wanted to create. To bring a bit of Paris to my corner of Savannah.

SET THE STAGE

We set to work starting with the iconic back bar mirror piece that demands attention when you walk in the door. We found it while antiquing in Canada and had it shipped to us. Beautiful dark wood with ornate carvings crafted in the 1800s- this would be our muse and our beginning. From there we built a bar out of molding from a Presbyterian church and painstakingly matched it to the back mirror. I remember sampling just the right color over a dozen times. From there we hung antique brass abbey lights suspended above large glass cases where the pastries, macarons, and sandwiches would be on display. Of course, we would need seating and we started modestly. A few tables and bar stools at the window, but after a few years we quickly realized that we needed to expand the experience. We carved out a section of the store with our steadfast fallow deer taxidermy encased in glass keeping watch. We created banquettes with antique marble topped tables and thonet chairs at the ready. The backing of those banquettes  people would rest on would be large leather workout mats I salvaged from Belgium. And of course, I got my woven chairs under my striped awning.

THE MENU

At the time we were dreaming this up, there were no major coffee shops close by save for Gallery Espresso a few squares away. Again sampling half a dozen varieties, even straight from Paris, but that wasn’t the solution. It was James. He matched our passion and delivered a beautiful blend just for us. Cup to Cup was a perfect local solution to achieve that fresh and layered quality we wanted to give our customers. From there, we knew that we would never be able to show our face if we delivered a bad sandwich. The French wouldn’t have stood for it. I wanted to deliver something reminiscent of my time in Paris, where you can have an incredible, sophisticated sandwich even at a train station.  I remember fussing over every single detail wanting it to be perfect and as close to my memory of my travels as possible.

THE CHARACTERS

And then there are the people.

This was always the part I loved most about cafés in France. Every corner seemed to have its own little world, with its own color scheme, its regulars, its familiar faces, and its own riff on the classics. You could sit down with a coffee and somehow feel as though you had stepped into a scene that had been unfolding long before you arrived.

Over the years, our café has developed its own version of that story. We have our regulars who have been coming for years, visitors who discover us while exploring Savannah, friends meeting for lunch, and people who simply pull up a chair and stay awhile. It has become its own little ecosystem, woven into the life of the store and the city around it.

And I think that is what I was really dreaming about all those years ago when I first closed my eyes and pictured those woven chairs beneath a striped awning. Not just a café, but a place where people could linger, watch the world go by, share a good sandwich, finish a book, write in a journal, or simply have nowhere else they needed to be.

A little bit of Paris, tucked into our corner of Savannah.