First Look: Le Rêve serves up a French-style cafe experience on Perkins Road

Didn’t make plans to jet-set to France this summer? No worries. Get your fill of pastries, coffees and more at Le Rêve, a new French-inspired spot housed in the former Southfin Southern Poké.

Le Rêve opens today, April 20, in the Southdowns Village shopping center, and owner Brad Mire says a grand opening will follow after things get up and running. The menu will feature coffee drinks, non-coffee drinks, biscuits, sandwiches and pastries. Coffee drinks will use beans roasted by Lafayette’s Rêve Coffee Roasters, the brand behind Rêve Coffee Lab in The Village at Willow Grove. The shop will also utilize the location’s drive-thru window for pre-orders.

Mire, who also owned the shop’s predecessor Southfin, says he always wanted to open a cafe concept like Le Rêve, especially since he tried the roasting brand’s coffee.

“The opportunity to sell Rêve coffee beans and be a part of their whole dynamic is really what we were looking to do,” he says. “So it was just a natural fit. We think Rêve coffee is the best around.”

The menu consists of staple coffee beverages like cortados, cappuccinos, cold brew, Americanos, and others, plus specialty lattes and frappes, like the Le Dore frappe with vanilla and caramel, and the Honey Mocha latte with espresso, oat milk, honey and mocha. Other flavored syrups that can be added to drinks include toffee nut, Irish cream and pistachio and more, so customers can customize their own sips.

Beyond drinks, Le Rêve also has a selection of food for hungry patrons. The food selection includes breakfast biscuit sandwiches, like the Pepper Jelly Sausage Biscuit, along with lunch sandwiches, like the Chicken & Avocado Sandwich. The pastry case also contains an array of coffee complements that are baked in house, like cinnamon rolls, cookies, croissants, danishes and more. Mire says the goal was to keep the menu simple, and he shares that his current favorite food item is the Ham & Pepper Jelly Grilled Cheese.

“[The menu is] just kind of playing to the French bakery-style pastry/coffee shop that we’re trying to bring there—having a solid pastry menu, offering a good couple of sandwiches and grab-and-go items,” he says.

Patrons can place their order at the front counter, which also houses barstools for extra seating. The rest of the shop is awash in Le Rêve’s signature mint green color with pops of red and greenery. The walls in the main seating area are covered in doodle-style art, depicting a city scene. Mire says he and his team worked with Rachel Carter to come up with the “French pastry bakery style” design and branding.

The exterior is also decked out with murals by local artist Kristen Serio. One, designed by Serio along with Carter, features the shop’s name surrounded by a latte and coffee beans; another is a simple rendering of the shop’s name; and a third contains Le Rêve’s tagline, “Dream of better coffee.”

Le Rêve will also have a “digital” drive-thru where customers can conveniently pick up online pre-orders.

“[The drive-thru] is really the biggest aspect that we’re trying to make use of,” Mire says. “That drive-thru is not long enough to really queue up a lot of cars, and we never did that with Southfin prior. The idea is digital drive-thru—order ahead, and we’ll have it at the window for you.”

Mire hopes the concept brings something new to the community, while also providing another spot where locals can hang out, do work, or grab a coffee and a quick bite.

“The whole idea behind a real French coffee shop is to sit, mingle and gather, and the space lends itself to that,” he says. “We want it to be a place that people come and stay and do whatever it is they need to do, whether it’s having a conversation with someone, studying, knocking out work or responding to an email. We just want to be that place. It’s a great spot, located on Perkins, and that’s really what we’re trying to create.”

Le Rêve is open Monday to Saturday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. It is located at 4321 Perkins Rd.