Local French patisserie Mademoiselle Colette will run a cafe in Atherton's soon-to-open library.

This will be the fourth location for Mademoiselle Colette, which has cafes in Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Redwood City, which serve breakfast, lunch, as well as pastries to go. Its proprietor, Debora Ferrand, is an Atherton resident, according to a town staff report.

"Mademoiselle Colette can bring an elegant, cozy, delicious, and high quality service cafe to the residents and employees of Atherton," the cafe's proposal to the town, which was selected during an April 20 City Council meeting.

Mademoiselle Colette will begin making $151,000 in improvements to the 250-square-foot space in May or June, and the town expects that work to take a few months, said City Manager George Rodericks in an email. The plan is for the cafe to open by early fall, he said.

The library is part of the town's $32 million civic center project. The town plans to host a grand opening event on June 4 from noon to 3 p.m.

Ferrand opened the local company's first cafe on Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park in 2015. Born in Brazil but raised in France, she attended Le Cordon Bleu and studied at the School of Alain Ducasse in France.

Deal details

The cafe is located in the $19.1 million, 10,000-square-foot library. Some $30,000 of the planned $151,000 in renovations would be for food equipment, according to the cafe's proposal. An approximately 2,000-square-foot deck and terrace fronts the cafe space.

Rent will be free for the cafe's first year of operations, then after, it would pay 4% of the cafe's prior month's earnings, capped at $35,000 annually.

Mademoiselle Colette plans to sign a five-year lease with the town.

Mademoiselle Colette anticipates it will initially be open from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Sunday.

During an April 20 meeting when the council chose Mademoiselle Colette, town officials said they would be fine with the cafe serving wine. The owners have to obtain the necessary liquor licenses.

Second go at gathering proposals

In March 2021, staff asked for proposals from vendors to finish and operate the 250-square-foot space, including outfitting it with equipment, supplies and furniture, and signing a contract to operate it for three years. By the May 2021 deadline, no one had applied.

The council put out another request for proposals at the end of January after seeing renewed interest in the cafe. Proposals were due on March 15. One other business, SiliconValley.coffee, applied.