A new French café is set to open its doors Monday on Sarasota's North Tamiami Trail, bringing jambon beurre sandwiches, kouign-amann pastries and espresso to a corridor long known as a gathering spot for Ringling College students. Comptoir - The Counter Café will take over the storefront at 2805 N. Tamiami Trail, seating around 20 to 25 people inside and about 20 more outside, with a century-old flag serving as the focal point of its interior decor.
The opening, scheduled for Monday, closes out a monthslong vacancy left by Shelf Indulgence Used Book Cafe, which closed the storefront on May 17, 2026, after operating there since March 2017, according to WhatNow. As reported by the Miami Herald, Comptoir is co-owned by Cemantha Crain and Gregory Desvenain, who previously worked together at the Lakewood Ranch location of C'est La Vie. Per the Herald's reporting, Desvenain, who is from France, drew inspiration for the new café from recent travels and culinary experiences there, and Crain is the one who told him he should open his own place.
A Point Chaud Concept Built for Students and Families
Desvenain grew up in Provence, where his family owned a small vineyard, and he went on to operate restaurants in St. Martin and Colorado before founding the Sarasota wine distribution company Wines of Provence in 2010, according to Sarasota Magazine. He closed that business during the COVID-19 pandemic and returned to construction work, the magazine reports, before Crain and Desvenain's collaboration eventually led them from C'est La Vie to their own venture. The outlet notes the pair first met when Desvenain performed home improvement work for Crain, and that he later sent her photos of Parisian and Provençal cafes during a trip to France to pitch her on the Comptoir concept.
Comptoir is modeled on a French “point chaud,” or hot spot, quick-service format, and the same report describes most daytime items as priced under $20. The menu will include sandwiches, salads, soups, quiches and crêpes, per the Herald, with a signature item called Le Petit Vendôme featuring ham from the bone, Normandy butter and cornichons. The sandwich shares its name with a Paris restaurant whose jambon beurre Time Out declared the best sandwich in the world, according to the Herald's reporting.
Pastries, Coffee and a French Beer and Wine License
An in-house pastry chef will turn out items including kouign-amann, the Herald reports, while the café will also pour a locally roasted coffee blend in espresso, cappuccino, cortado and flat white styles, alongside smoothies. Comptoir holds a beer and wine license and will serve French beer, French wines and wine-based cocktails, including Ch'ti French beer, according to the Herald. The same reporting notes the café plans daily hours of 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with a listed contact number of 941-726-3697.
Beyond its daytime hours, the café's owners plan to host pop-up wine dinners using that beer and wine license, with the potential to expand into regular evening service if local demand supports it, according to the same WhatNow report. The outlet also notes that Desvenain previously operated a wine-importing business in Sarasota.
A Storefront With Deep Campus Roots
The 2805 N. Tamiami Trail address has cycled through a string of neighborhood eateries over the past decade, previously housing World Bites Kafe in 2016 and Big E's coffee shop earlier in the 2010s before Shelf Indulgence moved in, according to Sarasota Magazine's earlier reporting. The storefront sits directly across U.S. 41 from Ringling College of Art and Design and near Bay Haven School, a location that Sarasota Magazine's recent coverage says helped shape Comptoir's concept.
The site also falls within Sarasota's North Trail Overlay District, a zoning framework the Sarasota City Commission adopted in 2013 to encourage pedestrian-friendly mixed-use development along the U.S. 41 corridor after it lost commercial traffic to I-75 construction in the 1980s, according to Your Observer. North Tamiami Trail also forms the western boundary of Sarasota's 838-acre Newtown Community Redevelopment Area, which updated its master revitalization plan in 2020 to spur small business growth along major transit routes, per the City of Sarasota. The redevelopment agency uses tax-increment financing to fund corridor improvements, the city notes.
Whether Comptoir eventually expands into regular evening wine service, as its owners have floated, remains to be seen once the daytime café settles into its new home across from campus.
