Café Gitane: From Nolita to Red Hook and Venice – A French Village Spirit in the Heart of New York.

In the French imagination, Gitane has long designated a brand of cigarettes or another of bicycles. In New York, this is a somewhat timeless café-restaurant, located for 29 years in the bucolic neighborhood of Nolita, this square of a few blocks wedged between Soho and the Lower East Side. Not much seems to have changed in “Gypsy Cafe” since its creation, giving the place a very French village spirit. The upholstery of the chairs is intentionally cracked. On the mirror is written the words “Please do not smoke”. The coffee is served in a small glass, accompanied by a chocolate whose packaging features a cat’s paw. You can eat a croissant and a piece of bread with a knob of butter, as well as some very simple dishes at affordable prices.

Red Hook and Venice after Vinegar Hill

It is perhaps because this place has kept its soul over time that the Café Gitane brand is still so popular, to the point of growing more and more. There had already been the creation of a second Café Gitane in New York, in the Vinegar Hill district of Brooklyn in 2018, as well as the opening of a place… in Tokyo a year earlier. Soon, Café Gitane will open a new space in the western part of Brooklyn, in the Red Hook district (second half of 2023), and another in Los Angeles, in Venice (during 2024). The result of chance, walks and meetings of Luc Lévy, the historic boss of the brand.

“In Vinegar Hill, I was walking around the neighborhood and saw a ‘For Rent’ sign, he says. I fell in love, it’s a very special neighborhood, on the edge of Dumbo, which reminded me a bit of Nolita when I arrived there in 1994. I need not to settle in places most commercial. In Tokyo, it was following a pop-up that I had taken care of in Osaka that some acquaintances wanted to reproduce the concept. »

The next two openings followed the same path. “In Red Hook, I was coming back from Ikea (Editor’s note: located in this district, on the banks of the river), continues Luc Levy. I came across this space for rent and I immediately liked the place. Red Hook is very creative and won’t change much. The metro is not very close and the neighborhood is a bit out of the way. »

actors in the adventure

In Los Angeles, it was the meeting with a coffee-loving customer from Nolita, James Vincent, a former collaborator of Steve Jobs at Apple, where he was in charge of marketing, that prompted Luc Lévy to take the plunge. The two partners will be well surrounded: the actors Josh Brolin (“No country for Old men”, “Men In Black 3”…) and Norman Reedus (“The Walking Dead”) are also part of the adventure. The café restaurant will be located on busy Lincoln Boulevard.

“It will be the next step from what I have achieved so far, says Luc Lévy. The place will be bigger, with a kitchen that will also allow us more things. » The menu will retain the Café Gitane classics. “I never wanted to do something typical of a place, I didn’t want to fall into clichés. I did things the way I liked them. The menus are quite simple with very good ingredients. We offer the shepherd’s pie like the Moroccan tagine. I was also lucky to have been surrounded by a group of young Australians and New Zealanders at the start, in the 90s, notably Chloé Osborne who released the first Avocado Toast at Gitane. At the time, no one was doing it here. » Nearly 30 years later, both the Avocado Toast and Café Gitane have won over many New Yorkers and grown well.