Verlet, coffee roaster on the Rue Saint-Honoré since 1880

Verlet, the coffee roaster and café on the Rue Saint-Honoré, opened in 1880 at number 256, between the Palais-Royal and the Louvre. It was then one of the few places in Paris that roasted coffee on the pavement in front of the shop.

In 1921 the shop passed to Auguste Woehrlé, known as Verlet, a former merchant-navy sailor and coffee importer who came to Paris to take over his godmother’s business. He created the Haute Mer and Grand Pavois blends and opened a tasting room. Closed during the Occupation, the house reopened afterwards.

In the early 1960s his son Pierre succeeded him and served coffee origin by origin: pure Brazil, pure Colombia, pure Kenya. Since the 1990s Éric Duchossoy has sought out coffees from rare terroirs and teas from the finest gardens. Roasting is still done by hand in a metal drum, up to the colour known as ‘monk’s robe’.

In a 1920s interior of wooden pedestal tables, mirrors, old parquet and fragrant drawers, the house serves more than thirty coffees and some forty teas, to drink in or take away, with breakfast, lunch and homemade pastries.