A flâneur in South Bend: Part 1

I am a hopeless coffee fiend. For years, I tried to quit. I aspired to be one of those health nuts who drinks the equivalent of eight cups of water a day, with a hint of lemon. Think Tom Brady. The longest I’ve managed to go without it, though, was two and a half weeks. On the day I caved, driving up to the Biggby Coffee in Roseland, those first few sips were pure heaven. The seas parted before me. Life had a purpose. A rhythm. A joy.

Eventually, in the face of failure, I owned up to my identity. Facts are facts, I told myself. I was a Colombian from New York City. Coffee was in my blood. The Colombian national soccer team, in fact, is known as “Los Cafeteros” — the coffee makers. And everyone in New York drinks coffee. At a friend’s wedding in the spring, I was there in all my teetotaler glory, nursing a small white cup of coffee while my fraternity brothers sipped on Moscow mules and old-fashioned cocktails. As one of my favorite writers, Richard Rodriguez, says in “Darling” (2013), coffee is one of those substances that “throw down roots in the human organism, roots that coil themselves around the little bones and dip their sharp nibs in the chemicals of the brain to draw up treaties, dependencies, visionary loans.” In other words, once she’s in, she’s in. 

So, naturally, to celebrate National Coffee Day on Monday, I visited South Bend’s newest café, La Belle Vie Charcuterie Café. Located at 233 North Hill Street, across the street from Saint Joseph Church, the café officially opened on Thursday. It sits in the storefront that used to house Zen Café, which closed a few years ago. As I walked in, I was greeted by a familiar face: Jerry Roberts. Jerry was the previous owner of the Hideaway Bar, a Prohibition-era themed spot on the first floor of my downtown apartment building, the LaSalle. It took me a minute to place the face, but once I did, I struck up a conversation. Apparently, he recognized me, too. We began to chat about the new venture. A local couple, Monica and Maury Hoban, had started La Belle Vie, and they had asked Jerry to help with customer service. 

La Belle Vie is a Paris-style charcuterie café. That means they specialize in dishes with cold cuts of meat. And coffee drinks, of course. The menu boasts several options combining meats and cheese, such as the Cafe Loaded Chips, which has kettle-cooked potato chips, prosciutto, brie, fig jam, arugula and a balsamic glaze. During my visit, there was excitement about a mushroom and spinach Florentine quiche that had just come out of the oven. Being a cappuccino connoisseur, and having already eaten breakfast, I went with the espresso drink. Mug in hand, I walked to one of the high tables and got to work on some PhD-related tasks while taking in my new surroundings, flâneur-style.

On the wall in front of me was a gigantic mural map of Paris. As I sipped on my cappuccino, a young lady walked up to the mural with her mother and pointed out a street she was familiar with from her time in the French capital. The map looked like a game board to me, but apparently it was realistic enough for her to pick out a familiar place. Indeed, Paris is the central motif of La Belle Vie. Each table has a basket in the center, and each basket has a tiny, shiny replica of the Eiffel tower, along with a vase of flowers. The décor is definitely European-inspired but struck me as homey New-American at the same time. 

The cafe is small and intimate. It takes up about half the space of previous occupant Zen Café. (The other half is now an office.) Certainly, La Belle Vie hits a different nerve than South Bend stalwarts like Java, Cloud Walking and the General. Overall, I was pleased with my experience. Granted, I did observe some kinks that need to be ironed out. Their expensive-looking espresso machine was out of order when I was there, so Jerry made my cappuccino using a small, single-serve Nespresso machine. They might also think about putting in some curtains. Given the time of the day, and the size of the café, it was hard to hide from the sun coming in strong through the windows. After 20-odd minutes of sunlight and caffeine flooding my nervous system, I was sweating bullets. Still, these are minor foibles. Try it out. Jerry is super nice, as was the owner, Monica.

“Come back and visit me,” he said to me as he handed me my cappuccino. I probably will. La Belle Vie will be in my rotation of South Bend cafes, for sure.