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Le Pain Quotidien

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Le Pain Quotidien, Fulham Road, Chelsea, London

Le Pain Quotidienlistenⓘ (The Daily Bread) is a bakery-restaurant group founded in Brussels in 1990 by Alain Coumont. It is an international chain of bakery-restaurants.[1] It carries an array of baked goods and coffee drinks as well as a dine-in food menu.[2]

History

Founder Alain Coumont opened Le Pain Quotidien on 26 October 1990 at 16 rue Dansaert in Brussels, Belgium.[3] As a young chef, Coumont was dissatisfied with the quality of bread available in Brussels, so he began making his own, mixing flour, water and salt into the familiar loaves of his childhood. He furnished the store with cabinets scoured from antique stores and a large table purchased at a local flea market: the first of Le Pain Quotidien’s many communal tables.[4] Gradually, items were added to the menu to complement the bread, including pastries, salads, beverages, tartines (traditional, open-faced sandwiches) and specialty retail products.[5]

Within a few months 10 Le Pain Quotidien bakeries were open in Brussels. The first Le Pain Quotidien in the United States opened on Madison Avenue in New York City in 1997. Expansion continued in the US with Los Angeles, and in 2004 the company's headquarters were established in New York.[6] The headquarters are currently located at 50 Broad Street in New York City's Financial District.[7]

Vincent Herbert has been the Chief Executive Officer of PQ Licensing S.A. since 2003, managing the company-owned United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Paris and Australia operations and overseeing the international franchises.[6]

Communal Table

A common theme in all Le Pain Quotidien locations is a long, wooden "communal table". For the first restaurant in Brussels, founder Alain Coumont found a large table made of wood reclaimed from the floors of retired Belgian trains.[8]

International presence

A Le Pain Quotidien in New York City.

Le Pain Quotidien currently operates more than 220 bakery-restaurant locations worldwide in 17 countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, India, Switzerland, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Russia, Argentina, Japan, and the United States. The United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Paris and Australia restaurants are fully company-owned and operated, while all other international Le Pain Quotidien restaurants are franchised.[9] The first location in the US opened in 1997 in Manhattan.[10]

The first Le Pain Quotidien - Rue Dansaert, Brussels.

References

  1. ^ Jacobs, Emma (8 February 2011). "Baker who turned tables". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  2. ^ Hettie Judah (6 June 2008), "Le Pain Quotidien, a bakery chain that keeps a local feel", New York Times
  3. ^ "Le Pain Quotidien U.S. Fact Sheet" (PDF). Le Pain Quotidien. 13 September 2010. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  4. ^ Coumont, Alain and Jean-Pierre Gabriel (2009). Alain Coumont’s Communal Table: Memories and Recipes. Brussels, Belgium: Editions Françoise Blouard. P 90-96.
  5. ^ Coumont, Alain and Jean-Pierre Gabriel (2009). Alain Coumont’s Communal Table: Memories and Recipes. Brussels, Belgium: Editions Françoise Blouard. P 112-113.
  6. ^ a b http://www.lepainquotidien.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GLOBAL_PRESS_KIT_1013_3.pdf
  7. ^ http://www.lepainquotidien.com/contacts/#.VeXErPlVhBc
  8. ^ "Our Philosophy".
  9. ^ http://www.lepainquotidien.com/landing/news/#.VeSlyvlVhBc
  10. ^ Young, Lucie (6 July 2011). "Alain Coumont recipes from Languedoc, France". London: Telegraph.

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