April 29, 2025—Talk about an impactful exchange student experience.
Céline Molière—co-owner of brand-new Emilie and the Frenchies, which soft-opened last weekend—came to Santa Cruz as a high school student, from Nice, France, three decades ago.
Mary Jane Dean’s (left) background in communications and customer service and community connections pairs well with Céline Molière’s extensive business experience. In the years since they lived together in high school, they’ve made constant cross-Atlantic visits.
Her host sister, bakery co-owner and store manager Mary Jane Dean, remembers what she calls the “old-time dating-style” profiles of potential guests, with an image and a profile listing interests, and what stood out about Molière: Her affection for Nirvana, which Dean shares.
The pair would fast find out they had much more in common.
“We were teenagers learning about each other, and we had similar interests,” Dean remembers, adding one key: “[Molière] was curious about Santa Cruz, and I wanted to show her all the things about Santa Cruz I loved.”
That’s where things get interesting.
Molière was so into what she found in Surf City that once she graduated from college, she opened a cafe in Nice’s historic district (along with her neighbor and friend Emilie) inspired by the cafes of Santa Cruz, including gone-but-not-forgotten Caffe Pergolesi and community stalwart Lulu Carpenter’s.
The cafe proved popular: French audiences responded to tastes that, at the time, were uncommon there—bagels, to-go coffee, American-style cookies.
The feedback was so enthusiastic, in fact, that the cafe added a second Nice location, then a third outside the city, then decided to franchise the concept. Today Molière oversees seven of her own cafes, more than 30 dot France, and Santa Cruz represents their first American cousin.
A quick Edible taste test revealed a dynamite raspberry financier (far left), solid dark French chocolate cookie and a Nutella muffin that could benefit from a moister texture. (Photo: Mark C. Anderson)
“It was always something we joked about,” Dean says. “In the back of my mind, I always thought, ‘If she wants to do a cafe, I’m there.’”
Emilie takes over the former Carried Away, a long time catering and take-out restaurant at the Aptos Center, next to Outside-In and across the street from the updated Aptos Public Library.
Molière’s wife and business partner Eliz Cervetti is also collaborating on the project. Fait amusant: Dean officiated their wedding in the Dean family’s backyard, entirely in French.
The Nicoise salad leads a menu of French classics including le Parisien sandwiches, croque monsieurs and quiche of the day.
Guests can anticipate pink pinstripes, simple seating and a menu of 15+ hot coffee drinks (including French flavored lattes), a few cold beverages, and a short but sturdy lineup of breakfast tartines, hot and cold sandwiches and a few salads (see menu, below).
Fair-trade Malongo brand espresso coffee and teas star among the sippers and sandwiches are made with bread from Companion Bakery and Kelly’s Bakery.
“Emilie and the Frenchies is a French cafe that is affordable, generous, healthy, and not fussy,” Molière says. “We want to change assumptions of the French food experience. We make simple recipes with really fresh, local ingredients, the basis of French cooking.”
Opening hours run 7am-4pm Wednesday-Sunday, with an official grand opening May 7, complete with a ribbon cutting ceremony by the Aptos Chamber of Commerce at noon, and pastry samples until 2pm.
The drink possibilities include a Nutella frappé and homemade iced tea.
Dean sounds audibly delighted to share buttery madelienes and loaded pan bagnats with their Aptos audience.
“This is how the French and Californian ways of life are so similar,” she says. Our cafe is French food and pastries with California vibes…Everything in our lives brought us back together to share our favorite Southern French recipes with the community we love so much.”
And while some readers might be surprised Santa Cruz has gotten so big in southern France, at least one early patron to Emilie and the Frenchies flipped the script.
A local came in during the soft opening and announced she used to frequent the original spot in Nice.
And promptly ordered, per Dean, “five things with Nutella.”
“She said, ‘I can’t believe there’s some Nice in Santa Cruz,’” Dean adds, laughing. “It was a nice full circle moment for us as well.”
More at emilieandthefrenchies.com.
Mark C. Anderson is an aspiring informavore, serial swimmer and EMB’s managing editor. Reach him by way of @MontereyMCA on Instagram or mark@ediblemontereybay.com.