French chefs bring a little bit of home to Latrobe
It's the end of a long work day, the kids have evening activities and what you really want for dinner is beef bourguignon prepared by two bona fide French chefs.
French Express in Latrobe can make that little dream come true.
The mostly carry-out business with a continental flair opened in December in the Latrobe 30 Plaza, offering hot entrees to go, along with sides, soups and salads. Sandwiches on fresh-baked baguettes fill the lunchtime bill.
Also behind the counter are deli meats and cheeses; fresh cuts of meat, fish and poultry ready for cooking; and a selection of pastries made each morning by those two French chefs, who now call Ligonier home.
The pair, Christophe Fichet and Nicolas Grunewald, grew up about 150 miles apart in France. After attending French culinary schools, they began separate journeys that ultimately led to Latrobe.
Fichet is a native of Dijon, where he says the local cuisine is quintessentially French, with favorites like escargots, coq au vin and, yes, beef bourguignon. Grunewald grew up in Schiltigheim, near Strasbourg, where proximity to the German border influences eating habits. Smoked meats, sausages, sauerkraut, potato dishes and pastries predominate, he says.
Fichet worked in Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe and served as an executive chef for the royal family of Qatar. Nicolas also made his way through the kitchens of Europe and assisted award-winning chef Philippe Jego in opening a five-star restaurant in Spain.
Their paths crossed when both worked at the private St. Louis Club in St. Louis, Mo.
When Fichet was recruited to be executive chef at the Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township, he invited Grunewald to join him as executive sous chef.
While both say they appreciate all the opportunities they've had, they agreed that it was time to step away from the high pressure, fast pace and long hours that come with the executive chef title.
Fichet's wife Kristin says he long dreamed of having his own business, “and he said he'd never do it with anyone but Nicolas.”
The desire for more family time was a big factor. Fichet and Kristin have two daughters, Mollie, 13, and Emilie, 10. Grunewald and girlfriend Liza Mayberry are expecting a child.
They also were interested in sharing their passion for quality local foods and green products and having more opportunity to interact with customers, including the ability to educate diners on international cuisine and to offer customized, specialty foods.
Upscale takeout seemed like a good idea.
““When you listen to people, they're saying, ‘What's for dinner? We don't want to cook tonight. We're tired of fast food,' ” Fichet says. “They want to pick up food, but they want it to be good food.”
With the business plan essentially settled, they started scouting locations.
They first looked around Monroeville and Murrysville, thinking there would be more of a market for what they wanted to do closer to Pittsburgh.
“It wasn't easy finding a place,” Fichet says.
Available facilities didn't fit the bill or the price wasn't right. Then there was the issue of distance. Something closer to Ligonier began to look more attractive.
“We see Starbucks opening in Latrobe, and we know they do their market research,” Fichet says. “We see this place (in the Latrobe 30 Plaza) and it's a very busy plaza. There's traffic going in and out all day long.”
With a site secured, the focus shifted to “bringing quality ingredients and meals to the countryside,” Grunewald says. “So far the people are responding. Some come twice a day.”
Ligonier fans are following them.
“Every day, we see people from Rolling Rock,” Grunewald says. “They go to the dry cleaner and then they stop here. One man said to me, ‘Nicolas, you've become a bad habit.' ”
The daily entree, which rotates, is sold by the pound, as are side starches and vegetables.
On a given day, you'll also find two-serving containers of chicken pot pie and shepherd's pie and quiche by the wedge.
At least three sandwiches are offered daily, with early returns crowning the eponymous “French Express” as the favorite. Half of a house-baked baguette is filled with French ham (“the ham we grew up with,” Fichet says), a nonpasteurized Swiss cheese from Lancaster (“it reminds us of the cheese we eat in France”) and cornichons (tiny sour French pickles).
The deli case is a European Union of cheeses like French Pont-l'Eveque, Spanish manchego and Italian gorgonzola. Meats might include duck breast; salmon, chicken and ribs smoked on site; or sausages like pheasant/chicken/cognac, venison/blueberry and wild boar/cranberry.
Fresh from the kitchen each day are a variety of sweets like tarts, eclairs, macaroons, madeleines and caneles, a rum-soaked, custard-filled, two-bite delight. Packaged condiments and sweets, both local and international, also are sold.
Though most of the business is takeout, diners can get hot and cold drinks and eat at several small tables. The decor suggests an outdoor French cafe with wrought iron accents and a blue-and-white striped awning over the counter.
The interior was designed by Kristin, who also helped with the business plan. Construction was a family affair, with Fichet and Grunewald doing the heavy lifting and everyone else, including Mollie and Emilie and some of their school friends, pitching in with finishing work.
“It brought us all closer as a family in so many ways,” Mollie says.
Though the plan was for Fichet and Grunewald to slow down, that's not happening in these early days. Lone employee Jaime Trout of Latrobe mans the counter, with occasional help from Emilie, but the two chefs are in by 7 a.m. to start the baking and are still there at closing time.
When not cooking, they help Trout, give customers impromptu cooking lessons and prepare special orders.
“We're trying to catch our breath,” Fichet says. “It's been 100 miles an hour since we opened and not many hours of sleep.”
Is it worth it?
“This is something Latrobe really needed,” Trout says.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-836-5750 or smcmarlin@tribweb.com.
