Over the last couple months, Bonne Cuisine, the catering company that makes its home in the lower courtyard of Spring Garden Place, has been quietly expanding. Today marks the grand opening of both Le Bon Cafe and the Magpie Bakery, two small complementary businesses that Bonne Cuisine owner Margaret Carson opened beside Bonne near the end of September. “Having an empty space, or having a tenant come and go, is not good,” she points out, about the space next door. “And this mall needed a good coffee operation.” Le Bon Cafe, a European-style coffee joint, serves good quality, fair-trade organic coffee, and an array of homemade baked goods, prepared onsite. “Most coffee shops do not focus on the food. I am focusing on providing beautiful coffee cakes, and beautiful muffins and scones.” Even the biscotti’s homemade—and you can enjoy some while parking your caboose in one of the cafe’s armchairs, and relaxing in an ambiance of “comfort and warmth.” The small Magpie Bakery, Carson’s other new endeavor, offers homemade breads (walnut-onion, focaccia, olive…) and fresh-fruit pies that are “chockfull of fruit.” Swing by Spring Garden Place for the grand opening, between 2:30pm and 5pm, or give Bonne Cuisine a ring at 425-6797.
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2007.