Open for breakfast, and brunch or lunch, daily.

Afternoon tea: 12 to 5 p.m.

VANCOUVER -- Faubourg’s patisserie window must be covered in nose smudges. The display draws you in, really close and longingly.

But Faubourg, in Kerrisdale, isn’t just a patisserie as it was meant to be when Franck Point and family moved to Vancouver from Lyons, France. He found the location on West 41st Avenue, it was bigger than he required, so in went a café and a bistro as well as the patisserie.

I haven’t tried enough of his pastries but I know I love, love the domed lemon tart with a layer of milk mousse on the bottom and a light curd on top.

Forgive me. I’m jumping ahead.

The small bistro area is off the café and bakery; it’s quite simple but the period painting, Queen Anne chairs (with clear plastic backs embedded with a white feather) and French-speaking wait staff bring up memories of Angelina Tea Room in Paris. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch but it does evoke Paris.

The bistro isn’t the strongest aspect of Faubourg but don’t let that discourage you from a visit. I’m just sayin’ the patisserie is the star of the show.

I stopped for lunch at the bistro on a Saturday and found the service to be friendly, professional, almost formal. A grapefruit salad (over-priced at $12.95, I think) was a fluffy plate of greens with a rather wet handful of ruby grapefruit. The pomegranate vinaigrette wasn’t evident.

Tartine Grand Augustine (among a selection of tartines for $12.95) featured a moist and flavourful chicken breast over a crisp, fresh spinach and toasted bread and tomato tapenade.

An entrée-style special, a shiitake-crusted char with beurre blanc, saffron risotto and vegetables was all nicely cooked and flavourful.

The presentation was too much of a collision of elements, piled atop one another. For $18, that was a good-value dish.

The pastries and breads are the stars. The lemon tart earlier mentioned and a mille feuilles were excellent — light, beautifully constructed and delicious.

I also tried some bite-sized and coquettish little choquettes, which are like chou pastry kisses with pearl sugar.

My partner summed it up with “I’d be really excited if this were in my neighbourhood. The atmosphere, staff and food feels really French.” I agree.

Running a French bakery, café and bistro would require an insomniac operator one might think but Point has foolproof help. Saving him or staff the 2 a.m. bakers’ rise and shine, he invested in a couple of skookum proofing machines.

They put the dough in the proofer overnight, setting the timer, temperatures and moisture levels for perfectly proofed dough, ready for baking when staff arrive at a civilized hour.

He also had five deck ovens installed for baking to set different temperatures for different products.

Point says he moved to Vancouver partly because it’s so much easier to open a business here. It would have been difficult to secure a loan in France from the conservative banking culture, he says. “In France, they are so frightened of everything. They are scared of their own shadow.”

As for the name Faubourg, the translation is ‘suburb’ but he likes historic thread.

“During the French Revolution, when Louis XVI decided to raise taxes on bread, people marched from Paris from Faubourg St. Augustine to Versailles to protest. When they reached Versailles, that’s when Marie Antoinette said ‘If they can’t afford it, let them eat cake!’ ” says Point.

At the time, areas that are now arrondissements in Paris were suburbs.

Many of his dishes are named after these faubourgs, including Montparnasse, Le Marais, Les Halles.

Point plans to start dinner service but for now, he’s waiting for a liquor licence. He’ll be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday by September.

Faubourg also offers afternoon teas daily, from noon to 5, the $25.50 version (mini-brioche sandwiches, scones, mini-pastries and fruit souffle) for those without a calorie care in the world and a scaled-down $16 version if you’re calorie cautious.