Folks & Sparrows

If you lived in Brooklyn or New York circa 2001-2008 during the French bistro craze (Pastis, Balthazar) you remember Sunday brunch at Bar Tabac on Smith Street. Michael Arenella’s 1920s jazz band, steak frites, escargot, moule frites, fountains of Ricard, and blocked streets for Bastille celebrations. It was loud, lively, and packed with Frenchies and Francophiles like me. You probably also remember the thin scruffy French dude in the black beret, striped T-shirt, jeans and converse giving deux bises to almost everyone. Who doesn’t remember this guy. Franck at Bar Tabac in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn was a legend.

Imagine my utter surprise when I walked into a cute cafe/sandwich shop on a small street off the Boulevard Beaumarchais in the 11th and there he was!! I immediately recognized him even though he looked completely different. Now Franck was dressed in a slim black suit, pointy black boots, and dark sunglasses. His once short black hair is now a thick brown mane past his shoulders. The scruff is now a long ZZ Top-esque full salt and pepper beard.

All my memories of Sunday brunch in Brooklyn came flooding back! I was so crazy about this place that my friend Kim brought me Bar Tabac takeout asmy first meal after a major surgery and weeklong hospital stay. Oh, and that Bastille day I insisted on playing petanque in the street on crutches. Me and my husband had our first date at Bar Tabac. I loved it for the energy, the vibe, and of course Franck who always said, “Bonjour ma princesse,  of course I give you a table right away!” I was quite sad when I returned to Brooklyn after some long distance dating travels to discover he was gone.

Now that I found Franck again, I decided this time around I wanted to know more about him besides what I already knew, that he was in the restaurant business and a photographer and an artist. A few weeks ago we sat down for an early morning cafe to chat. I wanted to know how he happened to go from Brooklyn to Folks & Sparrows.

Frank’s story starts off familiar for most expats.  Did you move for love or school? In his case he moved to New York City a few months before September 11th for love. His Lyonnaise girlfriend (now his wife) grew up in Florida,  spent her 20s in St Tropez  where she met Franck, and then decided to return to the States—NYC—for university. On Frank’s first trip to visit her at school he made the crazy irrational decision to stay. He didn’t speak a lick of english and didn’t have a job. But he was madly in love with his lady and The City. Sound familiar? He trolled the streets handing out resumes, even though it was a fat chance he would get a job with his language skills. After weeks of searching, he got a break when he strolled into a new French bistro in Brooklyn that needed a French waiter. Frank has a good laugh thinking about how he basically played charades and relied on pointing at the menu to take his orders. Then September 11th and anthrax happened.  Business was slow and Franck was reduced to one shift-Sunday.

It was not an ideal shift but with his boss’s blessing Franck took it and turned it into weekend madness. He brought in the then unknown Michael Arenella’s Dreamland Orchestra for Sunday morning brunch and  Spanish gypsy musicians for Sunday dinner. (Arenella is well known in New York City and fashion for his style  and big Gatsby-influenced Jazz Age Lawn Party on Govenor’s Island. ) He got a permit to block the street for Bastille day and filled it with music, dancing, and sand for petanque. Any time  French football was playing the restaurant was packed wall to wall.  Naturally his English improved after a year and he quickly got to become the manager. Frank has fond memories of Bar Tabac but admits to me that his crazy outgoing “the guy who knows everybody” wearing a beret and striped shirt was more of an act than who he really is. People wanted to go to Bar Tabac for the French bistro experience and the guy in the beret  just made  the experience seem more authentic.

Then Franck decided it was time to move on. He returned with his wife to France, to Lyon, and opened a bistro where he tried to recreate the Brooklyn vibe but it never felt right to him. Apparently it felt right to someone because a customer came in and bought the place.

New York kept calling and they moved back with plans to open a restaurant. Unfortunately that didn’t work out so they roamed Woodstock and finally decided to return to Paris, where Franck was born and raised. He decided to abandon the “French bistro” idea and open something more true to his real self as opposed to the loud guy in the beret.

I asked Franck who he really is then? He tells me to look around and this is him. Folks & Sparrows is a chill small place on a side street. He has filled it with people and things he loves. His righthand man, Quentin, who was also his employee and apprentice in Lyon, can be found every day in the cafe whipping up perfect coffee from Cafe Lomi. Quentin’s perfect smile helps keep the F&S  motto alive: “Good Vibes Only.”  (He says with all the negativity in the world and Paris he wants to create a positive energy at F&S.)

It appears Franck is more of a cool chic hippie than the caricature of a French waiter that I had always taken him for.  He tells me, “I am French but I love the States. Even more I love Woodstock and the Catskills. In fact, I am gonna be buried there for sure.  It’s the vibe there that I love.”

You can see a mix of his French roots and New York influences throughout the space and in the food. A carpenter friend from Woodstock built the bar, shelves, and custom doors. He likes to sell special and artisanal products that are not easy to find in Paris such as tea from Harney & Sons in Millerton, New York, Bahen & Co chocolates from Western Australia, and sardines from Portugal. Traveling in France he has picked up beautifully packaged artisanal confitures from Besançon with flavors like Potiron à l’orange, Framboise à la Violette, and Pomme et Poire aux éclats de noisettes.

He keeps his sandwiches simple and tasty. My favorite is the Prince de Paris sandwich that is made using the last true Parisian ham. Or you can try Perigord Sandwich with the most delightful surprise of confit d’oignon aux figures (onion and fig chutney). My only problem with the sandwiches is they are too perfectly presented with craft paper, twine, and wildflowers that I take a zillion photos of and never want to eat it!

The space is full of little details from the fresh wildflowers to tiny homemade buttons. Instagrammers heaven. Like New York delis, all sandwiches are made-to-order, which is great for people like me who loathe pre-packaged boulangerie sandwiches. For lunch you can also choose between various quiches, bagels, and cakes from the American baker extraordinaire, Rachel Moeller of Rachel’s.

I ask Franck what’s next, now that he has settled here and left his beloved New York City behind? He tells me that he is opening a second F&S cafe, further developing small branded products and goods like candles and cups, and wait for it—yes, in the near future expanding and making his way back to Brooklyn or Woodstock.

It’s that last bit that takes me back to why I love his story. Franck reminds me of so many expats who fall in love with another country and give everything up to live there. And sometimes when life has other plans they follow those plans but that love lives on and they eventually find their way back—even if just to die in their adopted home country.

Folks & Sparrows is the perfect place to sit alone and work (free wifi!), meet someone for a cafe or tea, or to wheel your stroller in and sit at the big table for a beautifully wrapped sandwich and leave with a present for a friend. You will enjoy your meal and be met with Good Vibes Only from these folks.

Images by Marjorie Preval

Folks & Sparrows
14 rue Saint-Sébastien
09 81 45 90 99
Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00- 6:00 PM

Follow Folks & Sparrows online:
Facebook: Folks & Sparrows
Instagram: @fsparrows