There’s nothing like a French accent to make a place feel classy, even if it’s not really French.
The Upper West Side is getting two not-so-authentic French eateries. Vive la Crepe, the crepe chain that has a popular location on 69th and Columbus is expanding with a new location on 86th street and Columbus, the former home of health food and sandwich store Lite Delights. According to New York magazine, the chain was started quite a few miles from the Seine: Mexico. Mexican, Frnech or whatever, their crepes are quite tasty and it’s fun to watch the chefs make them in front of you. Thanks to Emily, Terry, Kevin, Marsha and Susan for the tips.
On 70th street and Amsterdam, a long vacant corner spot is finally getting a tenant — Paris Baguette. But does this chain come from the land of the Eiffel Tower? Oh no! Paris Baguette is owned by Korea-based SPC Group. That doesn’t make the baguettes any less fresh, however. All joking aside, it’s awesome that this space is finally getting a tenant. Thanks to Jeff for the tip.
there are a couple of Paris Baguettes (one in chinatown, one in koreatown, go figure.)
they are quite good, and I think they are going to be a great addition to the uws, all our new french neighbors should be happy.
One must assume that they will make an fantastic bánh mì at Paris Baguettes..
Banh mi is Vietnamese, not Korean (or French).
With that said, my experience at another Paris Baguette is that their sandwiches (never tried the banh mi) are quite good, though expensive.
Two totally different bakeries that just share the same name. This one is based out of S. Korea and is not the same as the two in Chinatown.
I don’t know about the ones in Chinatown, but there is another one in the Korean-owned chain on Seventh Avenue around 40th Street.
My favorite Banh Mi sandwich place closed on Christopher St. this year. 🙁 PLEASE someone start selling those wonderful sandwiches on the UWS! Great french bread, barbecue pork, duck pate, and pickled carrot and radish. Mild, med, or spicy. You don’t have to be healthy everyday or do you?
Nice to see businesses making a go of it on the UWS , which is a challenging place to do business.
Note, these are chains. which is not necessarily a bad thing- it merely means that a once small business grew and now has multiple locations.
Why is that seen as the devil incarnate by a certain population amongst us?
The inherent problem with chains is that they, and their personnel, have no investment in the neighborhood.
Individually-run stores (“mom and pops”) care about the people they serve, because they know if their customers are unhappy they will go out of business. They may sell goods, but ultimately they are serving their customers (by helping the customer identify or find what the customer needs, by being available to discuss the purchase with the customer, and so forth.)
Duane Reade-type chains, on the other hand, hire people as cheaply as they can get them, knowing that if the staff angers or even just disappoints the neighborhood, well, the holding company will still have income from its other stores. And when the enterprise becomes totally unproductive, the corporate barons will simply close that store and open another one somewhere else.
Yes, it’s possible for a chain to open a store and then staff it with people smart enough to want to keep their customers happy. But that’s not what usually happens. Chains are usually staffed by people making minimum wage (many of whom, in my experience, are angry at having to commute to work for a pittance, and take out that anger on their — or, rather, the store’s — customers) who don’t really care about that particular job or those particular customers. The customers are not *their* customers, they are only the store’s customers; you don’t like it, go shop somewhere else.
And among those customers is me. That’s why I don’t like chains.
Yes , I know Banh Mi is Vietnamese but any Korean with a French Bakery should see the writing on the bread …