Two new French pastry shops, Matines Café and J’aime, open in Philly

This is a fine week for baguettes, laminated doughs, and other tasty carbs in Philadelphia with the openings of two French-owned pastry shops.

Matines Café offers French fare and gift items at the top of Chestnut Hill. J’aime French Café brings a coffeeshop experience to a corner in a residential pocket a few blocks from Rittenhouse Square; it’s a tiny second location for J’aime French Bakery, which opened five years ago in Washington Square West.

Chestnut Hill’s new café is just a scone’s throw from the Chestnut Hill East regional-rail terminus on Bethlehem Pike, a block off of Germantown Avenue.

Matines — “morning bells,” as in “sonnez les matine” from “Frère Jacques” — marks the latest stop for Arthur and Amanda de Bruc, who were working corporate jobs when they met in Paris. He’s 37 and originally from Brittany, where his family has lived in the same chateau since the 11th century. She’s 40 and the daughter of a French dad and an American mom.

In 2014, they visited her siblings in their Florida beach house and decided to move there, helping her sister open a French coffeeshop and bakery in St. Petersburg. Arthur de Bruc said he and his wife took a car trip to Savannah, Ga., a year later. “We said, ‘Wow, this is great. It’s very European, it has a great vibe, and we’re like, what do we do? Let’s open a French café,’” he said. “It was kind of a bold move.”

Cafe M was a hit, but Savannah was too hot for them. “People told us we’d get used to it, but it got worse and worse,” he said. They sold it in early 2021.

They packed up their two toddlers and headed for a sightseeing trip to Washington, D.C., but their flight was diverted to Philadelphia. They decided to explore. “We had met some people from Philly that were really nice and they told us, like Philadelphia is a great, great city. We checked it out and fell in love with downtown Philly.” After they toured Center City for housing, their real estate agent suggested Chestnut Hill.

They’ve taken over the former Wm. A. Heine Clockmaker shop, whose clock outside is correct twice a day (the couple plan to repair it when they have, well, the time).

Menu includes all-day breakfasts, pastries, salads, soups, sandwiches, tartines, and quiches, plus coffees and teas. There’s also a line of French-themed gifts, such as prints. The dining room seats 22; warmer weather will bring patio seating on the side.

And as for the morning bells, check the logo. The bells are Liberty Bells.

Matines Café, 89 Bethlehem Pike. Hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Bastien Ornano — also an escapee of the corporate world — has just opened a café offshoot of his J’aime French Bakery, polishing up a tiny storefront on the corner of 17th and Pine Streets, near Rittenhouse Square. The expansion serves two purposes: It widens his audience west of Broad Street, and it’s a quick walk to the home he shares with his wife, Abbey, who is expecting a baby soon.

Like at the much larger original, which opened in 2017 on 12th Street near Locust, the Aix-en-Provence-raised Ornano, 32, offers a line of pastries and viennoiserie (a macaron of the day, too), a few savory items (puffs), and coffees.

With a smaller kitchen, most of the baking is being done at the original. For now, he is not offering crepes or sandwiches. There are a few seats, but this is mostly takeout.

J’aime French Café, 1644 Pine St. Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For wheelchair access, there’s a doorbell that will signal a staff member to set up a removable ramp.