Changing Expectations

Margaux, new to East Liberty, offers coffee during the day and cocktails at night.

Expectations. Everyone has them. Go into a restaurant, and you expect tableside service, grinning servers, and the offer of dessert. Enter a café, and these expectations change. You expect to order at a counter and to clear your dishes.

Expectations are what Michael Sanders, owner of the new East Liberty, Euro-style cafe Margaux, wanted to be free of. Instead, he embraced flexibility.

The “light, bright, and lovely” cafe, which opened in July, meets diners where they are. There’s bar seating, tables and chairs, banquettes, and lounge design, so “people can do whatever they want.”

“It’s this idea that in the evening, you may meet a friend you haven’t seen in a long time, your partner, or a date, and you want an espresso and they want a cocktail,” Michael continues. In the U.S., he notes, there’s coffee culture, there’s cocktail culture, there’s café culture, and there’s restaurant culture. Each one is separate. Margaux brings them together.

This concept isn’t new to Pittsburgh. Before Margaux opened, the city was starting to see more of these all-day, flexible, combined-culture cafés.

De Fer Coffee & Tea was one of the first, opening in 2018 with house-roasted coffees, a small menu of sandwiches and toasts, cocktails, and beers. This year, Scratch & Co. instituted a tea time from 2-5 p.m., which owner Don Mahaney once described to TABLE as a chance for diners to “hang out and relax, not feeling like there’s pressure for you to to buy anything, just a few options in terms of food, tea, and champagne.” Coop de Ville in the Strip District brings an all-day coffee bar to an arcade and fried-chicken joint; Trace Brewing recently added coffee and an 8 a.m. start time to their daily hours; The Abbey on Bulter Street has something for every eater: a restaurant, a full bar, a coffee bar, and coffee cocktails.

“We have to consider what the post-COVID diner looks like,” Michael says, touching on the idea that Pittsburgh may be seeing a rise in this style of café.

“Maybe we’re saying there’s a confluence of events happening, right in front of our eyes. In the last few years, with COVID… we’ve all seen the pivots in the restaurant and bar industry: restaurants going to a carry-out or semi-temporary outdoor design models,” he continues.

“As we’re emerging out of that: are some of those trends worthy to double-down on? As the marketplace of what people want in the neighborhood – or even what people who own cafes and bars and restaurants want – changes, I think there are some elements that are here to stay.”

Margaux is open Tues.-Sat 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and 8 a.m to 3 p.m. Sun.- Mon. Coffee and a small menu of breakfast eats are available in the morning; cocktails, coffees, desserts, and a list of bites and shareables are available during the evening. Eventually, Michael says, they plan to open with a full brunch menu.