I read with nostalgia about the so-called “first” European-style cafe in Cambridge, which reminded me of the many unique places and people there (“Eliodora ‘Josefina’ Yanguas Perez opened Harvard Square’s first European-style café,” Aug. 22). Although I frequented Bow street, I don’t recall the Spanish cafe.
My nostalgia is for a French coffee shop that predated Café Pamplona. My best memory is that it served café au lait and pastries and was called Chez Gabrielle. An artist classmate and friend created the sign for it, a painting of a rooster. We were still in high school at Cambridge High and Latin, so that was before 1954. I used to sit at a table outside the shop at the foot of the stairs drinking cafe au lait and eating a pastry, reading a French novel.
Looking at a current map, it may well have occupied the cellar space, now the site of the Black Sheep Bagel at what is now 56 JFK St.
Jerry Halberstadt, Peabody
A stronger
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There was a French style cafe at or next to 56 JFK St. I remember it being there in the late 1980s or early 1990s as a walk down.
I went there a few times with friends back in those days, but I don’t remember the name and have no experience with the area before that to provide any more info. Whether it had been there since the 1950s I could not say, but there should be some info in the historical records or city records… any business along there should have had a Victuallers license etc.
I think, unquietsoul, you may be referring to the Patisserie Francaise (spelling?), from which Josephina purchased the pastries for the Cafe Pamplona.
MVAKent if you are correct then that would be :
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1996/4/11/french-cafe-closes-pthe-patisserie-francaise/
And it closed in 1996 (before I moved here) but which The Crimson at the time sited as being there for 30 years (so 1966 would have been when it opened) which does not match the timing that Jerry mentioned above (1950s) and would have been in operation.