A beautiful shop has just opened its doors on Shambles – and the owner is encouraging York residents to come back to the street.
Florian Poirot is filled with marvellous sweet treats created by a French master patissier.
The shop’s wide window had been hidden behind security shutters for years after former occupant the Geek Outlet closed. It is now filled with beautiful macarons.
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Also on sale are stunning chocolates and cakes, all created by Florian himself, a pastry chef originally from Nancy, a city in North Eastern of France.
Moreover there’s a café with tea, coffee from Roost in Malton, and great hot chocolate of course. It’s Café Gourmand – a hot drink with three macarons for £8.50, or £7.50 for takeaway – is already proving popular.
Florian first moved to York with his wife Celine after being invited to join the Nestle product technology centre. They were only meant to stay two years, but “after 15 years, we’re still here,” said Celine Poirot, Florian’s wife and partner in the business.
“We love so much York still. We fell in love and decided just to stay.”
Florian became the UK Pastry Champion, and later worked with the teams from Bake Off and Hairy Bikers, and James Martin.
After selling the macarons and more on York Christmas Market, they opened a first shop in Malton.
That received royal approval when it was visited last year by the King and Queen. Queen Camilla tasted a lemon bergamot macaron, saying it was “tres bien”.
But they had another ambition.
“We’ve done the York Food Festival, and the chocolate one in April, the September one, the Christmas market for the last ten years,” Celine said.
“I wanted to have a shop in York. Well, we had the luck to have this option, to have the Shambles and we’re so happy it’s ours now.”
The couple live in Acomb and are very much York locals. And Celine wants to encourage other locals to rediscover Shambles.
“For me, it’s a really special street. The first time when I came visiting, I just felt it’s beautiful,” she told YorkMix.
“But living in York, after 15 years, I started to avoid the street – too busy for me as a local customer.
“My aim is – let’s come back: loyal, local customers come back to the street.
“We’ve got fantastic food. We’ve got fantastic pubs. We’ve started to have independent producers back on the street, and I’m hoping that local customers will come back, and it would be not only for the tourists.”
So what can customers expect from the Florian Poirot shop? “We have so many visitors who came for macarons.
“But we don’t do only that. We do cakes, French cakes. We do amazing premium cookies, brownies, tiger and the chocolate bon-bons, using the best ingredients you can source locally or around the world, making sure they are the best, to create a very indulgent treat.”
They opened on Friday and Celine “cried a little bit on the morning” when she saw loyal customers from Malton queuing to get in.
Celine added: “We’re adding a little part of north-east of France patisserie to the UK and to Yorkshire.
“It’s a fantastic mix, because French patisserie is well known and well recognised in the world. And Florian is a master of the patisserie, and doing that in York with all the local products make a fantastic experience for the customer.”