Café Bienville in Niceville, Florida is a local favorite that specializes in breakfast and lunch, and offers a unique selection of hearty, southern-style menu items. The café is owned by Matt French who has 35-years in the restaurant business.

What started out 11 years ago on Bayshore Drive, Café Bienville has called 777 E John Sims Pkwy home for the last 4 years.

We stopped by to chat with Matt and see what his most popular menu items are!

“The café gets its name from French explorer, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, who founded New Orleans,” said French. “Bienville can loosely be translated to ‘nice-ville, well-ville, or good-ville'”.

• This is certainly welcoming and in-theme with Niceville community.

If you’re not familiar with Café Bienville, they have everything from salads with house-made dressing to desserts such as scones, beignets, and bread pudding. They also offer 8 signature sandwiches, 6 unique burgers, and all-day breakfast.

• For sides they have house-made hummus and veggies, home-made sweet potato chips, coleslaw, and homestyle potatoes. And to finish things off, a large selection of speciality beverages that include 19 specialty lattes and 31 syrup flavors.

A common theme at Café Bienville is the mention of “home-made” and “house additions.” Matt gave an example of how much effort goes into their food, which allows their cuisine to stand out against an everyday menu option.

“You can get a chicken sandwich anywhere, but not like this,” he said. “This is a slow poached chicken pulled off the bone, seasoned, heated in a house-made chicken broth, with Rosemary infused olive oil and house-made herb mayo on the sandwich. It’s not just mayonnaise out of a jar and chicken out of a can, it’s got a little bit of love put into there.”

Thinking you can’t have the sandwich due to gluten? Think again!

All of their bread can be substituted for either large portabella mushrooms or a gluten-free bun.

“The great thing about this gluten-free bread is that it actually tastes like bread,” he said. “A lot of the gluten-free options, they taste like cardboard, they crumble, fall apart and they’re just not good options so people don’t like them. But we tried this one and we’re kind of astonished.”

Here are the Top 10 menu items:

Of all the items on the menu, here are the most popular according to Matt.

1. Breakfast Bowl

• “Build your own” options are available

2. Muffuletta

Personal-sized ham, salami, Swiss, provolone, & house-made olive salad sandwich on ciabatta bread.

• Served hot or cold

3. “Who Dat” Bacon Egg and Cheese Burger

• House mayo, cheddar cheese, bacon, scrambled egg.

4. Fresh Beignets

5. Red Beans and Rice

• Paired with Andouille sausage

6. House-made Sweet Potato Chips

7. Sensation Salad

Baby greens topped with sliced carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, Kalamata olives, & dressing of choice.

• Meats + extras optional

8. Boston Crème

• Chocolate, caramel, & whipped cream

9. Aztec Mocha

Chile & cinnamon chocolate.

• Served hot or iced.

10. Black Beard

• Cinnamon rum sauce & chocolate

If you haven’t had a chance to stop by Café Bienville, add it to your list and if you have eaten there but haven’t tried one of these items, give it a try next time you’re in!

The café is open from 6:30am to 2:00pm from Tuesday to Friday, and 9am to 2pm on Saturday.