Chez Foushee is launching a new tableware brand inspired by the restaurant’s eclectic collection of plates, cutlery and other everyday items. (Photos courtesy of Joey Wharton/Chez Foushee)
A long-established French restaurant in the city centre is seeing a growing appetite for retail.
Chez Foushee is preparing to launch its own line of tableware, including glasses, plates and table linens, through a new retail brand called Found (stylized “FOUND”).
The items will be offered for sale on Chez Foushee’s website and customers can pick them up at the restaurant at 2 E. Grace St. in Monroe Ward.
The Found concept was influenced by customers’ positive response to Chez Foushee’s mix-and-match approach to the tableware used in the dining room.
“Every plate is different. … My motto is: Nothing goes together, so nothing clashes,” said owner Whitney Cardozo, who started the custom after taking over the restaurant several years ago. “I’ve always loved vintage pieces and we use them at home. I call the plates grandma plates. But people really bite into them, literally.”
Cardozo said the Found collections will consist of one-of-a-kind pieces sourced from estate sales and overseas travel.
Whitney Cardozo
In the future, the Found concept could be expanded to offer some household goods as well as the option of shipping through the mail instead of requiring customers to pick up the items at the restaurant. In-store pickup is intended to encourage people who wouldn’t eat at Chez Foushee to visit and potentially get them to come back.
“It’s a way to get people into the restaurant. It’s a marketing tool and that’s part of it,” Cardozo said.
While Chez Foushee occasionally sells glassware to interested guests, Found’s fall launch is designed as a more targeted expansion of the retail business and builds on other web-based retail efforts by Chez Foushee in recent years.
In late 2020, in response to the challenges of the pandemic, Chez Foushee introduced three-course takeout meals as a transition strategy while the dining room was temporarily closed. Customers ordered meals through the restaurant’s website and reheated the food at home.
The restaurant reopened for indoor dining in summer 2022. While Chez Foushee has suspended online food orders once guests return, it offers online dessert ordering and gift cards. Last year, it introduced online flower bouquet ordering. These existing offerings are expected to remain available after the launch of Found.
“We pivoted toward and away from the internet during the pandemic, but remained in the online world,” Cardozo said.
Cardozo said that while retail is only a small part of Chez Foushee’s overall operation, it is popular with customers and offers an opportunity to interact with them beyond the dining room.
“It’s not the most profitable aspect of the business, but it’s doing well and provides an opportunity for customer retention,” she said.
Chez Foushee opened in 1989. Cardozo, an interior designer, purchased the business in late 2017.
