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Amélie’s French Bakery & Cafe – Charlotte, North Carolina
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Amélie’s French Bakery & Cafe – Charlotte, North Carolina

by jeffreyApril 18, 2013
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Value
10
Quality
10
Atmosphere
10
Bottom Line

My like for the occasional French pastry and sandwich made me enjoy this place, my love of good French coffee will keep me coming back.

10
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Amélie's French Bakery & Cafe on Urbanspoon

2424 N Davidson St
$$ for a soup/salad lunch/dinner
French, Coffee, Cafe

I stumbled across Amélie’s on a recent trip to Charlotte and, according to Urbanspoon, it is one of the most popular, most raved about spots in the Queen City. So, I jumped in the car and made the short drive over to NoDa, which appears to be a resurrected-warehouse-district-turned-loft apartments and hip new eateries.

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Arriving at Amélie’s, you’ll find that their forte is their desserts as they have a very simple food menu with an elaborate pastry case. You’ll find that this cafe-meets-dessert store is huge, too–as you navigate the very bright and “Frenchly”-decorated building, it seems as if it just keeps going and going, complete with a quieter area sporting a coffee house vibe full of people hurriedly typing away at computers.

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And they’re busy, too–the sheer numbers of people filing through this place makes it feel upbeat and lively.
Again, you’re coming to this place for the desserts, but the few food items they offer are very French and quite good. I went with the HAM & GRUYÈRE TARTINE ($3.99), an open-faced baguette sandwich. They start with their freshly baked baguettes, then coat it in some sort of cheesy spread (making it very creamy) and then top it with ham and gruyère. I really don’t see how you can go wrong with this– the cheese came out perfectly toasted with very crispy bread. You could almost call it a French bread pizza.
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Sticking with the very French theme, I opted for the SPINACH ASPARAGUS LEEK SOUP ($3.59/cup). They claim this to be their most popular soup and I can see why:  it was quite hearty and filling and left me wanting more!
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On to the desserts…At $5+ for some of the desserts, they’re pretty expensive, but who cares, you shouldn’t be eating here very often anyway, fatty.
Their giant dessert case features all of the traditional French desserts you’ve come to expect such as macaroons, pain au chocolat, chocolate eclairs, creme brûlée etc…Unable to decide, I sampled way too many, including the:  SEA SALT FRENCH MACAROON ($1.49), COCONUT MACAROON ($1.19) & ALMOND TEA CAKE ($1.29)… All of which were so good that I literally don’t think I could pick a favorite.
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To finish it all off, I ordered the best part of the meal (given my extreme addiction to passion for coffee): THE MINI ($2.25). It’s quite simply just a shot with a splash of milk. Cafe noisette or cafe cortado to all you French or Spaniards out there, respectively. I mean, finally a place that does a proper Cafe Noisette, and without the Starbucks barista to screw it all up.
BOTTOM LINE: My like for the occasional French pastry and sandwich made me enjoy this place, my love of good French coffee will keep me coming back.
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jeffrey