There’s no such thing as a coffee shop in France. There’s the café and the café goes all day long, from the first shot of espresso to the last pop of Champagne and caviar.
At least that’s how Café Royale imagines it.
The dreamy new all-day space opened Monday, Oct. 5, in the Raleigh development The Exchange. Café Royale is the latest venture from Patrick Shanahan and Robby Opperman, who also operate the ornate Capulet Cocktail Club next door and downtown Raleigh’s Rosebud. Once again, Frederique Leonard serves as general manager and Peregrine chef Saif Rahman helped guide the menu.
With Café Royale, the group plans to take Triangle diners to a version of Paris one might find in the movies.
Shanahan and Opperman met as filmmakers and all of their projects look to create an imagined world within a restaurant or bar. At Cafe Royale the walls are wrapped in rosy paint and Chinoiserie wallpaper, with glossy red statuettes, including the Statue of Liberty, and plenty of velvet.
“We think about these places in the world that we love to go visit and love to be a part of,” Opperman said of Café Royale’s Francophile inspiration. “It all just kind of builds off that, and it’s been a lot of fun to dream it all up.”
The menu at Café Royale touches on bites from morning to night, featuring an espresso bar, bubbly onion soup and delicate macarons. jdjackson@newsobserver.com Drew Jackson
Café Royale builds on the Triangle’s red-hot trend of all-day restaurants, many offering coffee and espresso drinks in the morning and cocktails at night. But nothing else out there looks quite like Café Royale, with Parisian pop and endless glam.
More than anything, Shanahan said he wanted Café Royale to be a departure from the stark coldness he felt in many coffee shops.
The team behind Capulet Cocktail Club have a new all-day Parisian café in Raleigh. Café Royale is operated by, from left, Robby Opperman, Frederique Leonard and Patrick Shanahan. jdjackson@newsobserver.com Drew Jackson
“It has to be like Versailles, but like a modern punk Versailles,” Shanahan said. “The idea of royale is opulence and beauty and color. I think coffee shops for so long got modernized and to be these clean white boxes, and the last thing I wanted was anything like a clean white box. (Café Royale) is like you’re stepping into a painting.”
Here are four things to know about the new Café Royale.
Stay awhile
The thing about being an all-day place is Café Royale will be open more hours than it’s closed. The owners say there’s no rush, that they want guests to feel like they can stretch a morning latte into an afternoon nosh.
“The nice thing that we’ve seen with our previous projects is that the guests like to spend time there,” Shanahan said. “It’s really a place that people can come, be comfortable, step inside a piece of art. That’s the way that we see it… What we envisioned from the beginning was this Laissez-faire, European experience of like what a café is, a place where you’re not getting rushed out, the food is good, every drink you’re going to have is good. And it starts at seven a.m. and goes till midnight.”
The dining room at the new Café Royale in Raleigh, the Triangle’s most recent all-day restaurant. jdjackson@newsobserver.com Drew Jackson The bites and drinks
The Café Royale menu begins with an imagined quote from Marie Antoinette, inspired by the imagined quote most famously attributed to her. “Eat cake, drink Champagne.”
All of that and more is possible on the new menu, which features a full espresso bar, pastries like croissants (of course), skewers of melon and cured duck, bubbly onion soup and bright salads.
Café Royale will serve up espressos in the morning and Champagne cocktails at night. jdjackson@newsobserver.com Drew Jackson
Café Royale might be a destination for hot cocoa when the weather turns cold (they have a dedicated Hot Chocolate mug).
The signature sandwich is the Croque Monsieur, perhaps the most famous ham and cheese sandwich in the world, topped with comte and gruyere cheeses and bechemel sauce, then melted and toasted under a broiler. Add an egg to make it a Croque Madame.
The walls are pink and the patterns are bold at the new Café Royale in Raleigh. jdjackson@newsobserver.com Drew Jackson
“I would say the star of the show are the Croques, the Croque Monsieur, Croque Madame,” Shanahan said. “(General manager) Frederique’s pretty much taken recipes from her family and brought them to the table.”
On the drinks side, expect to hear lots of corks popping at Café Royale, as sparkling wine looms large on the menu. Look for champagne cocktails like the Kir Royale, a blend of creme de casis, lemon and Champagne, plus an artful espresso martini and many classic cocktails with French names.
“It’s going to be a Champagne, Cognac and gin focused menu,” Shanhan said. “Obviously, we’ll have like wonderful gin cocktails.”
Destination development
Peregrine was the first restaurant to open in The Exchange and quickly earned a James Beard semifinalist mention for Best New Restaurant in the country, helping to establish the new development’s culinary chops.
Since then, new restaurants have followed, including the busy Mezcalito and the new Pranzo. And of course Capulet, the windowless cocktail bar with illuminated stained glass, marble statues and a domed ceiling.
The Café Royale owners look to build on the Capulet momentum and situated next door to one another, the outdoor patio is an artful collision of France and Italy.
Look for the bright arch at The Exchange when you’re looking for the new Café Royale. jdjackson@newsobserver.com Drew Jackson
“We knew Peregrine was going to have to be a destination restaurant so we were like, well, let’s take people places,” Shanahan said. “You can’t see anything like Peregrine in Raleigh. You can’t see anything like Capulet anywhere else. And I think we wanted to continue that tradition with (Café Royale). “You’re not going to see anything like this anywhere else.”
Don’t forget the caviar
If there’s Champagne, there’s often caviar pretty close by and that’s definitely the case at Café Royale.
The menu will feature a caviar service, as well as blinis and caviar ($48) to share. So, wake up with croissants and get tucked in with caviar.
“When people think of champagne and caviar, I want them to say Café Royale,” Shanahan said.
Among the small bites at Café Royale, diners will find skewers of melon and cured duck. jdjackson@newsobserver.com Drew Jackson
This story was originally published October 5, 2026 at 5:15 AM.
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Drew Jackson writes about restaurants and dining for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun, covering the food scene in the Triangle and North Carolina.
