They were too sophisticated to ever utter the word quaint. But that seemed to be the subtext; that, and the fact that Le Pain Quotidien offered moderately priced, medium-fast, presumably fresh food - a step up from clamshell salads, a step beyond Au Bon Pain (or the more explicitly franchised Panera), and all in a warm, natural, easy, unplastic, big-windowed, upbeat space.
That is the advance billing I'd gotten before I set foot in the first Philadelphia branch of the Brussels-born chain, now numbering more than 150 bakery-cafes in 19 countries. And at a glance, stepping in a few weeks ago, I could see what they were talking about: long rustic communal tables, sponged farmhouse walls the color of Tuscan summer, grand shelves of round wheat sourdough, and unruly displays of sunny-faced tarts, with patches here and there of beautifully exposed brick.
It would have been a pretty story indeed, had I not ordered food. But I did. And things went downhill. The bread? The signature baguette a l'ancienne (as in "old-fashioned") was tasteless. The sourdough boule, so jolly and rotund, was dusty dry. Hmmm. This is a bread-based place. But they don't actually bake bread here. (It's baked in a commissary in southern Maryland that also supplies the Washington outlets.) And there's this: I fear I've been spoiled by Philadelphia's great breads - Sarcone's and Faragalli, Le Bus and Metropolitan, and the extraordinary baguettes at Agiato Bread Co. in Manayunk.
