Powdered sugar isn’t the only thing riding on the puffy fried shell of a New Orleans beignet.

For many in this town, the classic square doughnut carries evocative family memories, childhood associations, even an anchor to home. Beignets are a classic New Orleans treat, shared between generations.

This week, Café du Monde begins serving its beignets in what has long been a hub of local family life, City Park.

The new café and beignet parlor opened July 31 in the Casino Building. The historic, Spanish mission-style building sits in a corner of City Park where kids romp between slides and swings, brides pose for photos beside great oaks and park visitors convene for a little shade and relaxation.

Best known for its French Market location, Café du Monde has grown across the region through the years. It remains a family-run company, and that family is one with many of its own memories around City Park.

“We’re so excited to be here because of what City Park means to New Orleans,” said Jay Roman, one of Café du Monde’s owners. “There’s so much they’re doing here now, it’s really growing in the right direction. We want to be part of that.”

The Cafe du Monde family is growing too, and the new location adds room for the next generation to expand their roles in the company. Ashley Roman and Jacques Roman, Ian Jaeger and Emily Jaeger are all now helping run a shop in the same park where they once played as kids.

Café du Monde’s debut here has been a long time coming. It wended through a public bid process for the City Park lease that was closely watched in New Orleans because it tapped into tribal loyalties bound by local tastes and long memory in this town.

The previous beignet and coffee shop in the Casino Building was Morning Call Coffee Stand, which also traces its roots to the French Market and has a history spanning generations. It opened a location in the park in 2012. Seeking to increase revenue from the building, City Park put the lease for the spot out to bid last year.

After Cafe du Monde ultimately won that lease, Morning Call moved out in January and has not had a fixed location since (the company closed its longtime Metairie location last year). Many of its regulars were upset by the loss.

Morning Call co-owner Bob Hennessey, however, said he is working on a number of plans to reopen elsewhere. That includes a proposed new development nearby at Canal Boulevard and City Park Avenue.

Café du Monde set up shop in City Park in January, deploying its food truck to serve park visitors while renovations got underway.

In its lease, Café du Monde agreed to complete a series of upgrades to the Casino Building and open within 90 days. Roman said once the company got started, a far greater scope of work became clear, which entailed a longer timeline.

“This building dates to 1913, and when we got in here, we learned it was every bit of 1913,” Roman said. “We saw what we had to do. We told City Park, 'Look, we can do this fast or do it right.’ Fortunately, everyone agreed we wanted to do it right. We’re here for the long haul now.”

Rather than a revamp, the building’s kitchen was rebuilt, with floors excavated by jackhammer down to “the 1913 dirt,” as Roman put it. New systems, plumbing and wiring went in throughout; the public restrooms were overhauled.

What most visitors will notice, though, is the phase of work that came next: braiding Café du Monde’s own well-established brand into the existing contours of the Casino Building.

“You’re in a historic location, so you have to work with the old bones,” said Roman. “We needed to see what we could do to make it feel like Café du Monde.”

The touchstones to the famous French Market location are many, starting with the green and white striped awnings and down to specific tables and café chairs with olive green padding. Like other locations, there’s a window into the kitchen where kids (of any age) can watch the staff prepare beignets. A take-out counter opens to the Casino Building’s shaded patio.

Outside, the neon sign over the building’s terra cotta roof tiles was newly fabricated following the design of a sign that once glowed over the café in the French Market (that original neon sign did not survive a massive renovation of the French Market in the 1970s, Roman said).

The Casino Building is officially called the Timken Center. It was never a gambling hall. But Robby DeViney, the park’s chief operating officer, said because it served food it was known as the park’s cantina. He believes the Casino name came about through a progressively more-muddled New Orleans pronunciation of “cantina.”

It has always been an important part of the park's operation, he said.

“This building was the center of City Park expansion when it first opened,” DeViney said.

It housed park offices and, along with concession stands, it once had a shop selling fishing poles and bait for anglers ready to cast a line into the park’s lagoons. It also once had a police station, complete with holding cell.

City Park officials knew they wanted a beignet parlor in the Casino Building, and they tailored their request for bid proposals to draw local companies (Café Beignet, another local operator, also bid on the lease).

Amanda Frentz, a spokeswoman for the park, said part of the appeal of a beignet parlor is to have another attraction tied to New Orleans tradition in the park, and one that provides a family-friendly draw all day and into the night.

“When New Orleans people go out, you don’t want the night to end,” she said. “This is a good option for people because its available to all ages.”

Now, Café du Monde occupies most of the ground floor, while the second floor is one of the park’s event venues, a popular spot for wedding receptions. Café du Monde will be able to cater to those events too, which Roman expects will be a side business for the new location.

Many brides wear white. In City Park, some may wear a bit of white powdered sugar too.

Cafe du Monde

City Park, 56 Dreyfous Drive.

Open daily, 6 a.m. to midnight and to 1 a.m. on Fri. and Sat.

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