Word on the street
What locals are saying
Founded in 1984 by French artists Gwylene Gallimard and Jean-Marie Mauclet as a deliberate community project — not just a café — Fast & French has kept its communal tables, open kitchen, and no-tipping all-inclusive pricing intact across four decades on Broad Street. The French onion soup, open-faced Sandwich Provençal, and smoked salmon open-face are the anchors; rotating daily specials, a seafood gumbo one visit and a ham-and-apple baguette the next, are the reason regulars show up more often than they plan to. Service is warm but can drift unhurried at peak hours, and the tight communal seating is either the whole point or a minor nuisance, depending on your disposition toward strangers.
no-tipping, all-inclusive pricing since day oneFrench onion soup and open-faced sandwiches as anchorsrotating daily specials drive repeat visitscommunal tables by founding designservice warm but slow at rushforty-year neighborhood institution
The fit
