Le Pain Quotidien (French for the daily bread) is an international chain of bakery-restaurants.[1] It sells baked goods, bread, salads, sandwiches, beverages, and tartines.[2]
Le Pain Quotidien operates more than 260 bakery-restaurant locations worldwide in 20 countries, including Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, India, Switzerland, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Turkey, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Russia, Japan, and the United States. The US, UK, Belgium and Paris restaurants are fully company-owned and operated, while all other international branches are franchises.
A common theme in all Le Pain Quotidien locations is a long, wooden "communal table".
History
Founder Alain Coumont opened Le Pain Quotidien on 26 October 1990 at 16 rue Dansaert in Brussels.[3] As a young chef, Coumont was dissatisfied with the quality of bread available in Brussels, so he began making his own, mixing flour, water and salt into the familiar loaves of his childhood. He furnished the store with cabinets scoured from antique stores and a large table made of wood reclaimed from the floors of retired Belgian trains purchased at a local flea market: the first of Le Pain Quotidien's communal tables.