We Are Loving This Quaint French Cafe Inside A 1920s Building

Looking for a cosy cafe on Park Street? Head to Le Cafe.

We stumbled across Le Cafe late afternoon while walking around Park Street looking for a cafe to hang out at over a cup of coffee {which wasn’t the usual Barista or CCD}. And it was awesome. Run by Alliance Française du Bengale, this L-shaped cafe is much like a Parisian bistro with a French menu, and red-and-white table cloths.

It’s located inside Park Mansions, a gorgeous old apartment building on Park Street built in 1910 by an Armenian, TM Thaddeus. It is now owned by the Apeejay group {the folks behind Oxford bookstore}. This grand 78-year-old heritage French institute of Kolkata had to relocate from Park Mansions following a fire in 1999. It finally returned home to the Victorian confines of Park Mansion after 15 years in 2014. We loved the approach — you have to walk up this amazing wooden staircase to the second floor where the cafe is located. Even of you are not a Francophile, you must come here just to check out the ambience.

Onion soups, quiches, crepes — the menu is, of course, very French. We ordered the quiche au poulet {INR 80} — a chicken quiche with bechamel sauce which was creamy and delicious with hints of herbs like rosemary and thyme. Our second order was a crepe au poulet {INR 80} — a light crepe filled with juicy chunks of chicken, julienned carrots and shredded cabbage. The menu also listed sandwiches.

We didn’t try any desserts {next time for sure}, but the menu listed chocolate cakes {INR 40}, banana-chocolate cakes {INR 50} and sweet crepes {INR 30}.

Where this place let us down was in the beverages department. They had smoothies and fresh juices listed on the menu but had run out of the latter. The chocolate smoothie {INR 40} was runny and didnt have a great taste — we could hardly make out any chocolate. And the coffee was from a Nescafe vending machine. Mon dieu! That is a sacrilege in any French bistro!

You will fall in love with the L-shaped, high-ceilinged cafe with red windows overlooking Park Street, and floor-to-ceiling shelves stacked with French books. The books are mostly for the students who take the French courses at Alliance Francaise, but we spotted one shelf stacked with books for sale. They also have DVDs and PSP games for students to check out.

The cafe is a collaboration between Alliance Française du Bengale and TOTO café, a programme from the French NGO “Life Project 4 Youth” that assists in the professional and social skills of young adults aged between 17 and 24 who’re facing extreme poverty and exclusion.

The folks behind the cafe are to be applauded for creating the cosy interiors and the great menu. We have had such an abundance of newness in the city {all with an annoying need to do something, anything, to be different} that calm places like this are relaxing and refreshing to visit.