A restaurant and cooking school in Colorado Springs is expected to reopen indoor dining this summer after expanding into an adjacent space.
The French Kitchen stopped offering indoor seating amid the pandemic but continued to provide customers with cuisine via to-go and delivery orders. Expansion plans have been underway for more than a year and a half. The remodeled café will feature more seating, as well as bar seating with plugs to accommodate working stations.
In the newly designed space, The French Kitchen guests will enter from the new space and exit through the current space to improve traffic flow. The renovations will also include office space for staff and additional storage and freezer space to hold more products.
“By increasing the frozen market, we’ll be able to add some products that can be finished at home for those who like to cook and some products that are already finished. So that is exciting, as well, to start working on a new expanded menu,” said Blandine Mazéran, owner of The French Kitchen.
One new frozen item to be offered is brioche, which is not offered as a fresh item in the café. The French Kitchen soups, breads, and raw cookie dough are popular menu items.
COVID forced the shutdown of The French Kitchen’s cooking classes, which are currently back in session and fully booked through July. The expansion and possible addition of a new chef could help expand the cooking class calendar. “People love coming to classes,” Mazéran said.
The French Kitchen will celebrate its five-year anniversary on June 4, 2022, which is the planned reopening date for indoor seating. This year also marks the ten year anniversary for cooking classes. “I think we are still here because we are a big family,” Mazéran said.
“People feel good when they’re here,” she said. And once indoor dining has returned, The French Kitchen cooking class students and diners will have more space to meet and chat with friends or strangers who could soon become friends.
