You know how during the early COVID-era pandemic lockdown some of your single friends paired up so they could have companionship, fall in love, and then five years later they broke up? That’s sort of what’s happening with Cooks | Bellecour.
The collaboration between Cooks of Crocus Hill and Bellecour Bakery (which became Cooks | Bellecour) is over after June 1. What does this mean for you? If you love shopping for kitchen supplies, you’ll only be able to do that at the flagship location on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. The North Loop location will host classes, private culinary events, and a pickup location for its crop share program. The new website launches today, with the name changed back to Cooks of Crocus Hill. The Edina location is closing June 1—and Kaysen will turn that into a coffee shop/bakery later this year.
Courtesy of Shea
If you miss Bellecour in Wayzata (I do, it was one of my favorite restaurants in Minnesota), you’re in luck. Around the corner from Spoon & Stable in the old Muse Event Center, a new Bellecour Bistro & Bakery will emerge this fall, sort of like the old Bellecour—counter service cafe and bakery during the day and full-service bistro at night.
“I want to create food and a place where people can join us multiple times a week. I feel we have been overcome by the costs of everything, and in this bistro I really want to celebrate the craftsmanship of a bakery and bistro,” Kaysen said in a statement.
“Bellecour is and was always meant to be, my love letter to France, to the chefs who have taught me, and to the city of Lyon where I visit often. While we had to take a detour the past five years, I am excited to bring the cuisine I love to a neighborhood that has always been a strong supporter of what we have created,” said Kaysen.
Selling retail kitchenware and tools is a tough business—you’re competing with high-end equipment people can buy directly on the internet and all the direct-to-consumer brands that launch with big splashes on Instagram. “First it was the online assault, then it was retail apocalypse because stores are closing, then it was COVID, then it was the National Guard lining up in front of our store, what’s next? Alien invasions? We’ve survived all of these things,” Cooks co-owner Karl Benson told me. “We’ll find a way to survive this.”
Courtesy of Cooks of Crocus Hill
Owners Karl Benson and Marie Dwyer are both in their 60s, but not retiring, he told me. They had a five-year deal with Kaysen, and all involved decided to leave it there.
“In 2013, there were 850 Cooks-type retailers in the United States, now it’s less than 250. Of the top 10 at that time, there are two of us left. We work really hard to deliver on the things that other people don’t,” he said. “We are going to lean into what we do best.” Look for Cooks to add culinary travel into the mix. “We are an experiential educator with a store attached,” said Benson.
Photo by Sarah Corder
As for Kaysen, he told me his goal with Bellecour Bistro & Bakery North Loop is to bring back a real neighborhood feel at an approachable price point. He’ll have a little Kaysen’s Corner in the North Loop—with Spoon and Stable, Demi, and Bellecour all humming for dinnertime. A second location focused exclusively on Bellecour’s bakery and coffee shop elements is planned to open in Edina following the North Loop opening.
Courtesy of Shea
