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Furniture on the Menu at Bed-Stuy 'Vintage Cafe'

 A new "vintage cafe" in Bedford-Stuyvesant started by a one-named French expat offers customers the opportunity to buy vintage furniture along with their drinks and pastries.
A new cafe in Bed-Stuy also sells vintage furniture.
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BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — At this cafe, you can buy an old desk lamp to go with your croissant and iced coffee.

Started by a one-named French expat, the new "vintage cafe" in Bedford-Stuyvesant offers customers the opportunity to buy furniture along with their drinks and pastries.

Georges-André, at 558 Halsey St., was unveiled this month by a woman known simply as "SuperFrench," who named the cafe after her father and her son.

"I love vintage," she said. "I'm a vintage woman."

SuperFrench, 40, has gone by that moniker since first moving to New York 17 years ago. She's used the name in business, copywrited it in 2010 and even plans on writing a "SuperFrench" comic book.

The business owner moved from France to Virginia 18 years ago, where she worked as an au pair. After a year, she moved to New York and worked as a barista at the Nolita cafe Ceci-Cela.

After taking odd jobs and bouncing around Queens, SuperFrench moved to Bed-Stuy in 2009. She saw the storefront, then a small grocery store, and approached the building's owner daily about leasing it.

"I claimed that store," she said. "I would go to the landlord and say, 'Can I get the key?'"

Last year, the space finally became available, and she signed her lease. She decided to honor her father, Georges, who died two years ago on Father's Day.

"Even when he was sick, on medicine, he was a strong man," SuperFrench said.

All of the pastries at Georges-André come from Ceci-Cela, and the coffee comes from La Colombe coffee roasters.

The furniture, all from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, comes from her own vintage collection at 519 Halsey St. at a shop called SuperFrench Vintage. There are old couches, tables and chairs, as well as pictures and lamps, and almost all of it is for sale to the public.

Now she hopes the cafe will work as an extension to her love of vintage furniture.

"Furniture's my high," SuperFrench said. "I would go broke on it. Literally."