The Whitworthian

Issue date: 10/9/07 Last Updated: 1/17/08

NOTE: This article contains a correction.

The essence of "la vie provinciale" (the provincial life) and the aroma of freshly made croissants, paninis and coffee draw downtown wanderers into the comfortable atmosphere found in Madeleine's Cafe and Patisserie.

Opened three months ago, Madeleine's is quickly becoming recognized for its fresh and authentic French cuisine.

The cafe's owners, Deb Green and her daughter Megan Poffenroth, had the vision of bringing a provincial-style cafe to downtown Spokane.

Green worked in catering and other food service for 14 years, and Megan recently attended pastry school in the San Francisco Bay Area. So the two decided to combine their love of food and French culture into something not found elsewhere in Spokane.

"We just wanted to do something downtown that no one else was doing," Green said. "It's a little European-style cafe and bakery. It's provincial. It's quaint."

Madeleine's also offers a musical aspect to its otherwise traditional cafe. Every Wednesday at lunch Ben Mancke plays his acoustic guitar for the noontime crowd*, and on Friday nights various artists play shows at Madeleine's during the dinner hours.

"We'd really like it to become a place that people think of to go to for music," Green said. "That's something we are really excited about. The musicians are an eclectic group and they play a lot of their own stuff."

The ladies at Madeleine's are also looking to expand their services in the area of food. They are hoping to offer waited table service for Friday and Saturday evenings, which is different than their normal method of ordering at the counter and having the food delivered to the table.

"We are starting to do some dinner specials that are a little bit more high end," Green said.

They would also like to incorporate a Sunday brunch with Santa Claus over the holiday season because of their corner location in the former Crescent building, a historic department store.

"The Crescent building is known for its holiday decorations. We thought it would be fun to carry on that tradition," Green said.

Offering fresh food, original music and the feeling of provincial France, Madeleine's Cafe and Patisserie is making a name for itself in downtown Spokane.

"I think people like the atmosphere," Green said. "It's comfortable."

Contact Bethany Hergert at bethany.hergert@whitworthian.com.

*In the original posting, Ben Mancke's musical styling was incorrectly identified. He plays instrumental solo acoustic guitar.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools

The Whitworthian encourages readers to comment on any content on the whitworthian.com. Article comments can be posted by anyone. The opinions expressed are not necessarily the opinion of The Whitworthian, its editors or its staff. The Whitworthian strives to monitor and delete comments with profanity, advertisements, obscenity, plagiarism, personal attacks, threats of violence or that violate the law or common decency. However, since The Whitworthian does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not find offensive or inaccurate comments on occasion.

For this reason, The Whitworthian asks readers to be responsible and respectful in any comments posted. The responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not the whitworthian.com. Readers are also encouraged to report questionable comments by e-mailing editor@whitworthian.com.