Au Bon Pain will franchise the café through a Dearborn-basedrestaurant operator, George Darany, who also owns several Big Boyrestaurants in southeastern Michigan, company officials report. Therestaurant offers a menu of fresh-baked goods and salads similar toPanera Bread, another sandwich-and-baked-goods chain that onceowned Au Bon Pain.

The Campus Martius café will seat about 40 people inside, butadditional seating will be available outside and around the park.In addition to the main park's café, several mobile kiosks willoffer a smaller menu of sandwiches, pastries and beverages will belocated through the park.

Campus Martius is a two-acre park being built at Woodward andMonroe as an offshoot of the city's 300th anniversary celebrationsin 2001. It will feature a skating rink in the winter and concertsyear-round. The park was originally scheduled to open this summer,but construction delays pushed the opening to mid-November.