The most hidden of hidden gems in Fort Lauderdale: How to find Café Bastille when it opens Tuesday

It is the most enchantingly hidden of hidden gems, a new waterfront restaurant in the heart of Fort Lauderdale that defies every cliche those words may invoke. It will be impossible to keep Café Bastille a secret, but can we agree to share it only with close friends?

Set to open on Tuesday just a short stroll from Las Olas Boulevard, Café Bastille is a French-style, brunch-all-day spot from young Parisian couple Estelle Bellegy and Benjamin Amsallem. The two opened the first Café Bastille four years ago in downtown Miami, where they have earned enthusiastic word of mouth and brunch lines so long that they opened a bakery next door so the wait-listed could get out of the sun.

Bellegy, 30, and Amsallem, 31, met while working at Michelin-recognized restaurants in the luxury hotel Le Royal Monceau-Raffles Paris. Their Miami restaurant is informal, with a youthful vibe, but they are serious about service and the made-from-scratch food they serve in famously generous portions.

The Fort Lauderdale menu, identical to the Miami offerings, will include baked goods, omelets, pancakes, French toast and other traditional breakfast fare — the Red Velvet Pancakes get high marks — as well as sandwiches, salads, vegan dishes, smoothies and juices. Cocktails and coffee are a special emphasis.

“All the dishes come from our inspiration,” Bellegy says. “Every dish is very special and very beautiful. First, you eat with your eyes, so it has to be beautiful when it comes out from the kitchen.”

The Fort Lauderdale edition of Café Bastille will be open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. On weekends, a DJ will spin for the brunch crowd from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The kitchens at both restaurants will be supervised by chef David Cannon, most recently of the Mission Inn Resort & Club near Orlando. He also spent time at Ortanique on the Mile in Coral Gables.

With their luxury service background, Amsallem says they know that in addition to desirable food, it is important for the atmosphere at Café Bastille to have a certain “je ne sais quoi.” This ranges from relaxing visuals — a joyful garden decor extends through the dining room to the terrace — sound and lighting, to the tactile: How often does the manager stop by and “touch” the tables to greet guests.

“The experience, for me, is the key to our business,” Amsallem says. “It’s an accumulation of things, a lot of touches and attention to detail that we try to put into everything we do. We think that guests are very sensitive to that without really knowing it.”

The couple originally planned to open a new Café Bastille on South Beach, but the project was sidetracked by construction delays. A real-estate agent friend tipped them to a curious property in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and … how do you say “serendipity” in French?

“When we arrived here and we opened the door, the space is so beautiful. We saw so much potential. And here we are,” Bellegy says.

From the street, at 704 SE First St., Café Bastille looks like some kind of mistake. Freshly painted in soothing greens reminiscent of Monet’s Giverny water lilies, the restaurant is inside an old Florida bungalow ringed by the kind of luxurious residential developments that eat bungalows for lunch. How did someone forget to knock it down?

Wedged between the 16-story Venezia Las Olas tower a few feet to the east and the stylish, eight-story 10X Las Olas Walk to the west, the one-story stucco building, once home to The Junior League of Fort Lauderdale, feels almost invisible. Finding it feels special.

At the back of the restaurant, the terrace overlooks one of the most exclusive bodies of water in the city — but you won’t find a yacht in sight. In fact, there’s not much of anything to see on this serene, palm-dotted stretch of the Himmarshee Canal.

This is because to the east of Café Bastille is a small bridge over Southeast Eighth Avenue that is too low for boats to pass under, and to the west the canal disappears somewhat mysteriously under the patio deck at 10X Las Olas Walk.

In between is a couple of hundred feet of waterside tranquility, a remarkable scene less than a block from Federal Highway and Broward Boulevard.

“It’s a little jewel inside of the city,” Bellegy says.

Not that the canal is totally free of traffic — while Bellegy and Amsallem were putting the finishing touches on the space recently, a group of paddle boarders arrived to ask about the opening. Bellegy watched them lie prone on their boards as they paddled under the bridge.

“So you can just come in with your paddle board to brunch,” she says.

“I don’t know how we would welcome them, though,” Amsallem counters. “Where do you want to put the boards?”

“I don’t know, we’ll find a way,” Bellegy says, laughing.

Café Bastille is at 704 SE First St., Fort Lauderdale. Visit CafeBastilleDowntown.com.

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.