A French café, bistro, boulangerie and pâtisserie in downtown Ottawa
Le Moulin de Provence KD stands at 30 Metcalfe Street, on the corner of Queen, among the office blocks just south of Parliament Hill. The idea is simple: bring the four kinds of French food shop that usually stand side by side on a street in Provence into a single bright room downtown.
Café, bistro, boulangerie, pâtisserie. Each word has a precise meaning in French, and together they are the best way to explain what the place is about.
A coffee house serving locally roasted coffee and other drinks with baked goods or a light meal.
The coffee comes from Happy Goat Coffee Roastery in Hintonburg, about two kilometres west. The café chose a small, neighbourhood roaster on purpose: small-batch roasting supports small farmers, keeps the variety of beans alive and gives a more careful roast than an industrial one.
Three blends cover most tastes, an Ethiopian, a Bohemian and a Guatemalan, poured as lattes, cappuccinos or plain brewed coffee. The beans are direct-trade and organic, and because the roastery is so close they often arrive still warm.
A bistro, in its original Parisian form, is a small restaurant serving simple meals at moderate prices in a modest setting.
That is the model. Large windows open the room onto the street, which makes a small space feel open in the middle of the business district, where a sit-down meal of this kind is hard to find. It works for a lunch with colleagues, a coffee with a friend, or a quiet plate on your own without anyone minding.
A bakery that specialises in bread, especially French-style bread.
The bakers aim for a Parisian loaf in every batch. The counter carries more than fifteen kinds of bread and baguettes each day, baked fresh and sometimes to order: something for breakfast, for a sandwich at noon and for the dinner table.
A pâtisserie is a French or Belgian bakery that specialises in pastries and sweets.
Macarons and cakes are at the centre of the pastry case. The café talks about pastry in terms of the small pleasure of a good bite rather than price, and about the balance it tries to strike between sweetness, saltiness and texture.
The ingredients follow the same rule as the coffee: local and organic where possible, and as few and as simple as the recipe allows.
Northwest corner of Metcalfe and Queen, across from the World Exchange Plaza and two blocks south of Parliament Hill, a three-minute walk from the Hill. The KD café belongs to the Le Moulin de Provence family of bakeries, whose best-known shop is in the ByWard Market.
Photographs of the café and its food are by Alex McTaggart. Daily bread and pastry appear on Instagram as @le_moulin_de_provence_kd.