Cafe Forant, New York

Chef and restaurateur Lea Forant hand-selects organic and local produce for a menu of French-influenced cuisine. Although recipes, like holiday socks, change seasonally, a wide array of sandwiches, omelets, and seafood plates incorporate ingredients such as emmental cheese and smoked salmon. Chalkboards relay the daily assortment of freshly baked desserts and baristas fill glasses with house-made lavender lemonade and cranberry iced tea. Incorporating customizations for diet, taste, and budget, catering services deliver French cuisine to doorsteps. Natural light inundates the cafe's glassed-in sun porch, streaming past the striped awning and elbowing between clouds playing Red Rover.