PARIS — Sant Ambroeus, the storied Milan pastry shop turned New York cornerstone, is opening Monday in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Tucked on a corner of Rue Saint-Benoît, a side street to busy Boulevard Saint-Germain, the 3,000-square-foot restaurant is nothing less than “the perfect location,” according to Alireza Niroomand, the hospitality brand’s creative director.

“This is the epicenter of Paris, culturally — and I went to school in the neighborhood,” he told WWD ahead of the opening. “I feel I won the lottery with this location; the stars are aligned.”

Catty-corner with the Café de Flore, the address was previously a popular French brasserie and the location of the now-defunct Silencio des Prés and is surrounded by art galleries, high-end antiques specialists and bookstores.

Not only did the neighborhood rife with artists and writers echo the SoHo energy that characterizes its New York eateries, but being off the beaten path yet not that far from the action is part and parcel of the Sant Ambroeus charm, explained Gaetano Guarducci, managing partner of the restaurant brand’s parent SA Hospitality Group.

Behind revolving doors with an Art Nouveau touch is a spacious yet enveloping multilevel space decked in dark wood, sage green velvet and dusky pink carpeting redolent of Riva boats.

Tables set around wrought iron railings offer a view on the lowered main dining area as well as the bar surrounded by glass bas-reliefs of Milan and New York that take pride of place on the back wall. A smattering of plates aside, Niroomand said the Paris address won’t host a plate wall like its SoHo sibling.

On top of the 60 seats indoors, including a private dining room downstairs, there’s also space for 20 on a heated enclosed terrasse. A velvet curtain pulls back to reveal a coffee bar with a secondary entrance, perfect for a pit-stop espresso, grabbing sweet and savory bites to go or snapping up souvenirs like a sturdy tote in collaboration with Parisian brand L/Uniform.

The idea was to “preserve the artistic soul of the neighborhood and the cabaret spirit of the space,” said Paris-based interior architect Fabrizio Casiraghi, who designed the decor. “Sant Ambroeus has a strong visual identity and a profound connection to art, which naturally finds its place in the Saint-Germain landscape of art galleries and antiquarians.”

A touch more muted than its New York siblings, with their happy brights and whites, the Saint-Germain outpost is about being “a little more dinner-focused,” Guarducci said.

“The breakfast crowd is what we’ve been doing for 90 years, almost 100 years, so we’ve understood [that] meal period very well,” he continued. “Dinner is a bit more of a challenge because people who come to a restaurant for breakfast don’t necessarily want to come back [in the evening].”

Although Niroomand joked he had to “promise the neighbors [it’s] not a nightlife place,” don’t expect the restaurant to be entirely quiet. Days away from the opening, there was already the hubbub of conversation of Parisians and even some regulars from New York.

There might be some game nights in the private dining room downstairs, the decor of which blends the below-deck vibe of a luxury yacht with the Parisian je ne sais quoi of delicate floral wallpaper. “I’ve been dreaming of doing a backgammon tournament downstairs with friends,” he confessed. In its Milan address, there are regular sessions of buraco, a rummy-like card game that’s popular in Italy.

As vibe isn’t enough to fill the place, open seven days a week from 7:30 a.m. to midnight, there’s the menu spearheaded by Iacopo Falai, executive chef of the restaurant and culinary director of the group.

Juxtaposed with Milanese classics like vitello tonnato, an impeccable saffron risotto and a moreish osso bucco are an oh-so-American lobster roll and an upscale take on the French pepper steak.

Cocktails span an Aperol sour, espresso martini and “Talk the Talk,” a concoction centered around mezcal, while nonalcoholic options include French Bloom and St. Germain lemonade made of elderberry syrup, ginger beer and a dash of lemon.

Those with a sweet tooth will have their pick of the signature princess cake in its pink livery, Black Forest cakes and more.

Monday’s opening was almost a decade in the making, tracking back to Sant Ambroeus’ 2017 residency as the final guest in Colette’s water bar.

But the project made a decisive move beyond wishful thinking in 2020. “We won’t open a restaurant that’s outside of our operational scope unless we know for sure that we have someone there that we can trust, both operationally and with the guests, [someone] who understands the brand,” Guarducci said. “When Alireza moved to Paris, that was our sign.”

Still, it would be another five years before the right location materialized. In the meantime, aficionados got teasers in the shape of a food truck outside Saint Laurent and an outpost in the seven-story Alaïa flagship on Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré.

After winning the bid for the premises, in tandem with Les Films du Losange, a film production and distribution company that is taking over the underground cinema, wheels moved fast with a three-month overhaul and the organization of its 60-person team that includes kitchen staff from Italy.

If Sant Ambroeus Paris happens to be a stone’s throw from legendary hot spots like Lipp and at a moment where American restaurateurs are landing in Paris in droves, the hospitality executive isn’t fazed.

“Competition is good,” he said. “That’s not that we want a competitor to open in front of us necessarily, but it brings people…it’s good to have people coming into a neighborhood; it’s good energy.”

And the group has plenty more in the tank. Guarducci said the brand, which already operates 15 locations, had two openings in Los Angeles, including an imminent one in Beverly Hills; one in Miami, and one in Dallas slated for the next 18 months, with another two on the horizon before 2029.