Fair Grinds Coffeehouse is a popular Mid-City gathering spot. August 28, 2012. (Photo by Eliot Kamenitz, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Cafe Degas, the long-running French restaurant in Faubourg St. John, is decorated for Bastille Day. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Cafe Degas, the long-running French restaurant in Faubourg St. John, is known for its rich flavors and lush ambiance. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Fair Grinds Coffeehouse was a cafe in Faubourg St. John for more than 20 years before closing in 2022. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Fair Grinds Coffeehouse is a popular Mid-City gathering spot. August 28, 2012. (Photo by Eliot Kamenitz, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

For close to 40 years, Cafe Degas has been a mainstay for French cuisine in New Orleans. Soon, the Faubourg St. John restaurant will have a new way to showcase those flavors.

Co-owner Jacques Soulas confirmed plans to take over the former home of the Fair Grinds Coffeehouse just across the street, at 3133 Ponce de Leon St.

The move will serve two purposes. First, it will expand the kitchen capacity for Cafe Degas itself, which right now operates from a shoe box-sized galley kitchen.

Fair Grinds Coffeehouse was a cafe in Faubourg St. John for more than 20 years before closing in 2022. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

The next phase will add a casual cafe with a counter service deli. The focus will be on French style sandwiches and pastries with coffee drinks.

Soulas said many of the particulars of the new concept are still in development, including the name.

Soulas said breakfast is a possibility at the new cafe, depending on staffing. He said the lunch menu would bring sandwiches like filled with pate, French salami, and ham and Brie (the jambon-beurre, which had been a specialty of Mayhew Bakery, a nearby neighborhood bakery café that just closed for good).

“We’re delighted that Café Degas is taking it on and excited to see what they’ll do there,” said Wade Rathke, who ran Fair Grinds from 2011 until the coffee shop closed this spring.

Cafe Degas, the long-running French restaurant in Faubourg St. John, is known for its rich flavors and lush ambiance. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Soulas and business partner Jerry Edgar started Cafe Degas in 1986 in the tiny confines of a one-time barbershop on Esplanade Avenue. It has grown progressively and become essential neighborhood restaurant.

But its kitchen space has not much expanded. From a seat at the bar or one of the outdoor tables, it’s common to see cooks ferrying supplies across Ponce de Leon Street from a tucked-away storage pantry.

The home of Fair Grinds Coffeehouse had long then a café, going back to at least the 1970s when it was the original location for True Brew Coffee.

It became Fair Grinds in 2000, originally opened by Robert Thompson and Elizabeth Herod. Rathke, who leads activist group Acorn International, took over in 2011.

The coffee house, and especially its second floor room, had been used for many years for art shows, meditation groups and other community organizations.

Cafe Degas, the long-running French restaurant in Faubourg St. John, is decorated for Bastille Day. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

The coffee shop shut down after Jazz Fest, and soon the property was on the market.

A second location of Fair Grinds at 2221 St. Claude Ave. also closed during the pandemic. Rathke said it’s possible this second location could return sometime in the future but had no immediate plans to reopen.

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