Belinda and Barnaby Quinn ’s new “salted beak” offers French and Mediterranean lunch specialties.
Let’s talk about bread. Imagine, if you will, the very specific crunch of the pointy end of a freshly baked, Parisian baguette that gives way to a perfectly chewy interior, showering your lap with flakey, crispy crumbs. Once you’ve munched on the real thing, all else pales.
Paris is famed for its bread, pastries, quiche and croissants. The flour in France, the techniques of the craft, and that very French “je ne sais quoi” have been a recipe for baking magnificence for centuries, with the baguette arriving around 1839. But it’s 2022, and we don’t live in France. Some of us have never even thought of going.
Enter Belinda Quinn, a Parisian born master baker and co-owner with her husband, Barnaby, of the two-year-old smash hit, Le Bec Sucre, a true French boulangerie in Middletown that sells breads, tarts, croissants, pastries and the aforementioned baguettes-of-the- Gods. The bakery is well-known for selling out every crumb within just a few hours of their 7 a.m. opening.
Pan Bagnat from the South of France, a salad Nicoise-style sandwich on country bread, will be among the lunch specials that change weekly at Le Bec Sale.
On March 25, just across the way in the Polo Center, the couple opened their second, lunch-focused outlet, Le Bec Sale, which appeared to follow suit. The line began to form nearly one hour before the takeout café opened its doors that day at 11 a.m. The entirety of the menu was wiped out in under an hour. The couple took it in stride and adjusted accordingly.
“It’s not great that we’re a lunch place that sold out before lunch,” mused Barnaby of opening day, “but now we know what to expect.”
By day two, opening hour was changed to 11:30, the inventory was boosted and though a few items sold out, there were still plenty of savory French lunch dishes from which to choose in the mid-afternoon.
The “salted beak” aims to take the theme of the “sugared beak” a step further. Here, Quinn’s baguettes serve as the crunchy, chewy wrapper for classic French sandwiches and Vietnamese Banh Mi, a nod to her heritage and the blend of food cultures that was created when the French first brought bread to Vietnam in the mid-19th century. But the cafe menu, which is quite reasonably priced, expands beyond even those influences.
New York City transplant Wendy Logan is a career writer whose work is fueled by a passion for food and libations, art, music, and culture.
“At Le Bec Sale, we’re going to have a [number of] strictly French items every day, and all the rest will be Mediterranean,” she said. “So, three basic sandwiches will be on the menu, and then we’ll do specials weekly. We have the sandwich jambon beurre, a Parisian [classic] made with mustard butter, ham, Comte cheese and sliced cornichons. Le Parisien has a whole grain, tarragon-mustard-mayo, thinly sliced ham and Comte, and we add arugula, chicory and pickled onions for that extra pop, and the Banh Mi is filled with chicken, garlic mayo, cucumber, pickles and cilantro.”
Another savory French lunch staple, the Croque Monsieur (a griddled ham-and-cheese sandwich also made here with Comte cheese), will be available with or without the meat, a vegetable based version made with sauteed mushrooms and bathed in a creamy, spinach bechamel sauce. Fluffy quiche Lorraine will also be on hand, along with both a mushroom and spinach and a leek and gruyere version.
There will be Salade Niçoise, another French mainstay of mixed lettuce and chicory, green beans, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper, tuna, boiled eggs and pickled onions, and a daily special salad, like Quinn’s ‘Salade Chevre Chaud,” with lettuce, chicory, cherry tomatoes, warm garlic goat cheese toast and walnuts.
“And we’ll also have focaccia, and pizza,” said Belinda, “but the French style of pizza [known as tartines], topped with potatoes, Comte and caramelized bacon.”
The cafe will also offer French desserts.
With three young sons at home, it’s one step at a time for the Quinns. But given that, in just two years, this culinary power couple has already added a second storefront, it seemed fitting to ask Belinda about her dreams for the future. Hailing from a family that owns one of the top Vietnamese restaurants in Paris, her answer is not surprising.
“Someday, I would like to open a bistro, really French, with [authentic] dishes . . . not so expensive,” she said. “But for now, we will concentrate on this.”
Le Bec Sucre has easily sold tens of thousands of Belinda’s baguettes over the past couple of years, but given their popularity, not everyone makes it there in time to get one. Luckily, the icing on the gateau of this new, salted French “beak” is that it, too, will offer baguettes, along with some of the bakery’s other breads and a variety of imported, French cooking items, including oils, vinegars, mustard and cornichons.
Go. You can say “merci” to me later.