Here it is today, the windows covered in paper.
A sign on the door says, "We are closed for renovation" and "Thank you for all the great years together as French Roast." Which makes me wonder if this restaurant is coming back as some other version of itself.
Or not.
Before this was French Roast it was a no-frills coffee shop called "Windows on the Village". I went to college nearby in the early/late 1980s & I got breakfast there often. Two eggs, fries, toast & coffee for $1.50!
ReplyDeleteThis is owned by the Tour de France restaurant group
ReplyDeleteIt will probably become a 5 napkin burger
@shimmertwo - Interesting. If so, it's odd that they think that a Five Napkin Burger would have a better revenue stream than the French Roast. The average ticket at the French Roast must certainly be higher, but then maybe the turnover is too low as people probably sit around quite a bit at FR.
ReplyDeleteHere's a list of their other restaurants (which, oddly, doesn't mention the Five Napkin Burgers)
http://www.tourdefrancenyc.com/contact.aspx
As shimmerstwo pointed out, French Roast was merely part of a partially-faux-French chain, and not unique or independently owned. Why are we mourning its loss? More cogently, why are we ignoring how it pushed out a unique, independently-owned coffee shop in the 80s?
ReplyDeleteIs it because we solipsistically place all importance on what the city was at the moment when we personally arrived, and don't much care about what was already lost before then?
Wasn't this a Blimpie's on 11th and 6th? Went to H.S. on 16th. Loved to go to Blimpie's after school. French Roast abandonne? C'est la vie.
ReplyDelete