Paul, the bakery, is still family owned, fifth generation originally started in Lille, 131 years ago, the same year they opened the Eiffel Tower. It may be a chain operating in five continents but has morphed into something more than the sum of its parts, successfully deconstructing the entire notion of the French restaurant and serves everything to go. But you would be hard pushed to nominate any restaurant that hits this level of quality so consistently.
It is still a bakery with good quality sourdough breads. And picturesque cakes. Often squeezed into a space not much bigger than your dining room table, a large kiosk really, manages, quite miraculously, to also offer baguette style sandwiches; hot toasties, doughnuts, croissants (with egg and bacon if you like), quiche and things for which you might need a phd in advanced French baking to identity and name. Plus there is coffee, fizzy drinks. Even soup. And some of it is relatively topical like a hot Reuben toastie or a vegan falafel sandwich.
And if you might like to know how they do it you can buy into a masterclass to learn how to make eclairs or a sourdough bread for £90, normally at Covent Garden branch. Chapeau!
It is a slightly windy family history – Charlemagne Mayot and his wife had a bakery in Croix back in 1889 Their son Edmond inherited and his daughter Suzanne married a noted baker Julien Holder and it was their son Francis who bought a little bakery in Lille called Paul. And they kept the name. It was Francis who developed the business setting up a wood fired bakery to supply Auchan and Monoprix and who has seen the expansion wordwide to currently 750 outlets.
