How did a dilapidated bank building on Warren Street get reincarnated as a temple of fancy chocolates and all manner of delectable food and drink?
Enter Arden Fuchs, who launched Banque last winter. Since December, this Wes Anderson-worthy setting has been doling out imaginative sweets and savory meals with European sophistication. The ridiculously flaky croissants practically have their own fan club already.
Though she’s just shy of age 30, Fuchs has years of training as a chocolatier and pastry chef in Switzerland and Australia. When she set out to ply her trade, being an upstate restaurateur was not in the plans; she wanted to channel her creativity into a retail and wholesale chocolate business.
Fuchs had fond feelings for Hudson (it had been a favorite off-campus haunt when she was a student in the Berkshires), so when a listing for the former Farmers’ National Bank on Warren Street popped up as her potential headquarters, she couldn’t resist. She set her sights on rescuing the 1927 brick building—designed by the architect of the Empire State Building—and creating a place where guests could enjoy her creations amid a lush setting. That is, once the dropped ceiling and mundane fiberboard wall panels came down, revealing extravagantly high ceilings and remnants of ornate plasterwork and moldings.
She hired her mentor and teacher from Australia, noted chef Paul Kennedy, to join the pursuit.
Among the results: an astounding array of chocolate, including giftable boxes of intensely colored bon bons with flavors like coconut with kefir lime and pistachio praline with lemon ganache, which Fuchs likens to “a little bite of Sicily.” Banque also offers both classic viennoiseries, in the form of a stellar pain au chocolat, and unorthodox ones, such as a matcha-infused croissant with vanilla pastry cream and sour cherry jam. “We’re about quality, first and foremost. We import our butter from France, because that’s what our pastries require,” Fuchs explains.
Banque’s ridiculously flaky croissants practically have their own fan club already.
Once the croissant-and-coffee rush of the morning is over, there’s an evolving menu of seasonal fare at Banque, from savory squash soup and steak frites to gelato, with cocktails and a full bar, too.
Fuchs has plans to continue to grow the menu in the months ahead both to suit the community’s tastes and to provide a full day’s worth of eating occasions. And with its elegant lighting, curved marble counter, midnight-blue banquettes, and extravagant murals (painted by Fuchs’ friend Rachel Hearn) that depict food-forward plants like vanilla orchids, kumquats, and lemons, Banque really is like a taste of Paris on the Hudson.
Related: Your Guide to the Sweetest Carrot Cake in the Hudson Valley
