Popular café serving up a taste of France in the heart of Warrington

The great alternative to cards and flowers showed residents that friends and family were thinking of them during the national and local lockdowns, when they were unable to meet up in person.

The response was so positive that Julien and Olivia decided to open their own café / coffee shop in the town centre, serving freshly baked French goodies.

Here, in our latest Business of the Week feature, the French couple tell us about the delicious items on the menu – which are all traditional French offerings – and why their working day starts at 4am.

If you would like your business to feature as Business or Trader of the Week, email heidi.summerfield@newsquest.co.uk

Julien Ramos

What’s the name of the business?

Gourmand!

What’s the address?

58 Sankey Street

Warrington

WA1 1SB

Are you the owner/manager?

Yes, we are everything!

When did you open the business?

We opened in September 2021.

Has it always been in the same location?

Yes, we’ve never moved from Sankey Street.

Gourmand! opened on Sankey Street three years ago

Are you local to the area? Did you grow up here?

No, we are both French, moved to England in 2013 and we've been living in Warrington since 2014.

Tell me a bit about your business

We are a bakery, a cake shop and a café. We offer traditional French food going from breakfast items such as pastries to lunch with soup, sandwiches and a bistro menu with hot dishes and desserts such traditional French pâtisseries (cakes) and crème brûlée.

What do you do? What services do you provide?

We also sell hot and cold drinks, our baguettes to take home and we have a deli section where our customers can buy cheeses, cured meats (all PDO labelled) and artisan jams and chocolate spreads imported from France.

Why did you decide to open your own business?

We had the idea of a coffee shop in our mind as we have always loved to cook and bake for us and for others. The pandemic happened which made us think about the idea more seriously and we thought it was the right time to do it.

Julien and Olivia start work at 4am to make sure everything is baked fresh each day

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What’s your business background?

We both had experiences in the hospitality industry but it is our first business.

Why this type of business?

As what we master and what we miss is traditional French food, we decided to bring what we love to the Warrington community. We realised over the years that there was a lack of businesses offering traditional French food, conveying a lot of clichés about France and its food, so we wanted to bring the real French food culture to Warrington.

Were you open before/during/after the Covid-19 pandemic? How did this affect your business?

We started our business online during the second lockdown in November 2020. We offered to have cakes and treats delivered to our customers’ loved ones while they could not meet them. It was great alternative to cards and flowers. The response was so positive with many customers who used to go to France saying our cakes reminded them of their trips to our native country. So, we decided we should give it a go and opened our bakery / café in September 2021.

Croissants and other French pastries are on the menu each day

What makes your business different to others in the same area/field?

We are managers, bakers, cooks, barista, waiters, community manager, website designer and more at the same time in our café! We wanted our customers to experience France when coming to us so we offer traditional French recipes with French ingredients like specific flours and butters for our breads and pastries. We cook and bake everything from scratch and served it like it would be served in France. To do this, we start at 4am so our bread and pastries are ready for the opening at 8am after a 24-hour process for the pastries and 12-hour process for the bread. As we are a fully traditional French place, we don’t serve English breakfast or savoury breakfast options as French people have sweet breakfast. This is why our food offer is different from other food places.

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What sets your business apart from your competitors?

We are not only a French bakery and café, we also offer a fixed bistro menu during the week and a French brunch set menu and a proper French dish or regional speciality on Sundays like we would enjoy with our families in France.

In the past three years, we have been nominated for Best Café, Best Dessert and Best Breakfast in Warrington. Although we did not win the titles, we are aware that our offer is too specific, but this consistency makes us proud of our good food lovers community who keep trusting us. We were awarded Best Café in 2022 though, after being open less than a year.

We are regionally recognised having been awarded Best French Café in Cheshire in 2023 and awarded a Blue Ribbon Good Food Award in 2024.

We are also nationally recognised having been a finalist for The Best Croissant UK 2024.

These achievements would not be possible without our loyal customers who keep showing their support by coming back to us, spreading the word about us and even being very excited to bring their friends and family when visiting them.

Traditional French sweet treats (Image: supplied)

Why do loyal customers return to your business?

Our loyal customers come back to us for various reasons. Some come for the quality and freshness of our food and drinks and some come for the treats they can't find anywhere else which remind them of their time in France. Some come for the atmosphere, the French magazines and books and the French music or even for a chat in French or to talk about France. Many come for our Deli as they love French cheeses and charcuteries or they come for our French artisans jams. Many say we’re like family.

We have great pleasure in seeing local customers coming to us but also customers who travel from further afield - Widnes, Runcorn, Manchester, Chester, Liverpool and even Stoke-on-Trent.

What our loyal customers enjoy as well is the fact that we try to use seasonal fruits and vegetables as much as possible and that we can adapt our food offer depending on the weather, the season and the national celebrations. We always have something to please them.

What’s next? What do the next few months hold for you and your business?

Like many businesses, the festive period will be really busy for us so we will focus on the Christmas menu, opening pre-orders to our customers so they can have some Gourmand! treats on the table to wow their guests. We’ll bake some special treats for La Saint Nicolas (Saint Nicholas) on December 6, which marks the beginning of the festive period in France before offering a special Christmas menu on the Sunday before Christmas.

Then in January, as usual, we will be baking loads of Galettes des Rois (King's Cakes) so our customers will be able to collect them to celebrate Epiphany on January 6. This cake is enjoyed by French people throughout January so it will be available in our café until the end of the month. Following that, the next big event for Gourmand! will be La Chandeleur (French Pancakes Day) on February 2, where we'll be doing galettes and crêpes on the day. Then our year will be busy with various events like Easter, Mother's Day, sports events, Father's Day, end of school year and summer. We never run out of occasions to offer and bake special treats!