Lightning Bear Productions

Photographer Randy Rancier spent most of his life working at corporate jobs that he hated.

The father of three girls, he knew that having a steady income was the right thing to do.

But when his girls reached their teens, he began exploring his real passion in life: photography.

A fine arts major at Sam Houston State in his early years, he decided at age 50 to throw caution to the wind and pursue his lifelong goal of photography.

“It’s what I really want to do,” Rancier said simply.

The Corinth resident said his main influence of art was modernism, mainly from the turn of the century through the early 70s.

“A lot of the influence is abstract themes,” he said. “I think you can see it in a lot of my work. What I always focus on is that the image has to have impact. The impact may be beauty and form or it might be something strong and graphic. But is has to have impact.”

David Carles, owner of Café Du Luxe, a wine and coffee bistro in Denton that features art and music, is showcasing Rancier’s works throughout the month of February.

While some coffee cafés may feature a local artist from time to time or dedicate only a limited amount of space for the artist to display his or her talent, Café Du Luxe goes the extra mile. An entire wall of the café has been designated solely for the purpose of featuring some of the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area’s brightest and most exciting artists on a monthly basis.

Five others have had monthly showings, J. Lynn Kelly, Scott Focke, Joan Hart and Emily Penn and Keith Clementson.

Café Du Luxe offers private label coffees, some of the world’s finest wines and a menu featuring breakfast pastries, sandwiches, salads, soups, evening appetizers and decadent desserts.

Rancier said the road to Café Du Luxe was a long one. After graduating from college with a major in fine arts 1981, with a penchant for photography, he realized “I didn’t really know how to make a living as an artist.”

He enlisted in the Air Force, thinking that “flying planes would be fun,” but the would-be pilot failed to finish the flight program.

He worked in sales a few years before going back to school to pursue a degree in civil engineering.

Although Rancier still loved photography, he decided instead of using the right side of his brain, the creative and artistic side, to switch to the potentially more lucrative left side.

“Unlike many people, I am adept at using both sides,” Rancier said. “I’ve always had an artistic inclination, but I’ve always been real good at math and numbers.”

“I worked in the field of engineering for roughly 20 years, but I really wasn’t happy,” the artist said.

But he was married with a family to support, so he put his dreams of photography aside.

In later years, now divorced and his children older, he began to revisit the dream.

“A few years ago, I started back to photography,” he said, adding that the years off had left his skills a little rusty, especially now that photography had entered the digital age.

He began building his photography portfolio, with a goal of opening a gallery and frame shop. To hone his business skills, he took a part-time position at a frame shop in Flower Mound.

In addition to wanting to own a gallery, he planned on going to art festivals on the side to sell his works.

“I just saw while working at the frame shop for experience that if I opened a retail shop, I was going to get bogged down with the business,” Rancier said. “I just really wanted to do my photography. And the more I looked into festivals, the more I realized you can make a good living at it. It’s a whole industry.”

So rather than dabble in an occasional festival, he opted to make photography his only source of income.

“I realized about six months ago that if I’m going to do art festivals, at least to start, I’ve got to, for a period of time, totally immerse myself and devote myself to that,” the photographer said. “Because I realized if I didn’t, I wasn’t going to get a good start.”

He’s been accepted to show at four art festivals this spring, with a goal of 20 this year. They include the Arts in the Square festival in Frisco, Artscape at the Dallas Arboretum and Art in the Square in Southlake.

“It’s very competitive,” Rancier said of getting accepted for the lineup at art festivals, especially major national venues.

“This is my first major exhibit,” Rancier said of his showing at Café Du Luxe.

“They’ve got a really unique concept there,” he said, referring to the fact that an entire wall provides a wealth of space to showcase his works. “They have a nice exhibit area. I can put a good scope of work up there.”

He’s put up more than 20 images, some of them fairly large.

A popular one is the watch tower at Alcatraz. One of his favorites is called “Patio and Clouds,” a photograph he took from his back porch.

“You see the house and a shadow going across it at an angle,” the photographer said.

Café Du Luxe owner Carles is excited about giving Rancier a local venue to display his talent.

 “I think it’s great that artists welcome the chance to be showcased and realize that they can be a part of something unique,” Carles said.

In addition to having his shown all month long, Rancier will have the opportunity to meet his old and new fans at a “meet the artist” event there from 5-7 p.m. Feb. 21.

To view some of Rancier’s works, go to www.randyrancier.com.

Photographer Randy Rancier spent most of his life working at corporate jobs that he hated. The father of three girls, he knew that having a steady income was the right thing to do. But when his girls reached their teens, he began exploring his real passion in life: photography.

A fine arts major at Sam Houston State in his early years, he decided at age 50 to throw caution to the wind and pursue his lifelong goal of photography.

“It’s what I really want to do,” Rancier said simply.

He said his main influence of art was modernism, mainly from the turn of the century through the early 70s.

“A lot of the influence is abstract themes,” he said. “I think you can see it in a lot of my work. What I always focus on is that the image has to have impact. The impact may be beauty and form or it might be something strong and graphic. But is has to have impact.”

Rather than dabble in an occasional art festival, he opted recently to make photography his only source of income.

“I realized about six months ago that if I’m going to do art festivals, at least to start, I’ve got to, for a period of time, totally immerse myself and devote myself to that,” the photographer said. “Because I realized if I didn’t, I wasn’t going to get a good start.”

He’s been accepted to show at four art festivals this spring, with a goal of 20 this year. They include the Arts in the Square festival in Frisco, Artscape at the Dallas Arboretum and Art in the Square in Southlake.

“It’s very competitive,” Rancier said of getting accepted for the lineup at art festivals, especially major national venues.

“This is my first major exhibit,” Rancier said of his showing at Café Du Luxe.

An entire wall of the café has been designated solely for the purpose of featuring some of the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area’s brightest and most exciting artists on a monthly basis.

 “They’ve got a really unique concept there,” he said, referring to the wealth of space to showcase his works. “They have a nice exhibit area. I can put a good scope of work up there.”

He’s put up more than 20 images, some of them fairly large.

Café Du Luxe owner David Carles is excited about giving Rancier a local venue to showcase his talent. “I think our bistro is a great way to showcase these area artists and to give them the opportunity to be part of something unique,” Carles said.

Café Du Luxe features live jazz

Cafe Du Luxe features live jazz music every Saturday, from 8-10 p.m. Music is provided by The Bill Metzger and the Perrin Grace Duo.

Metzger has been playing and studying music for more than 14 years. He is attending the University of North Texas in Denton.

 “It’s new and it’s fresh,” he said of the bistro that opened in 2009. “It’s also a high-class place.”

Grace has been playing and studying music for more than six years. Grace is attending North Texas, where he is majoring in jazz studies. He plays electric and acoustic bass.

“Café Du Luxe is a really nice place,” Grace said.

And more of all that jazz

Beginning Thursday, Feb. 11, the cafe will feature jazz vocalist, Karyna Cruz. You can find samples of her music at: www.myspace.com/karynacruzmusic.

A taste of Argentina: Gascon Malbec

The bistro is featuring a new win, Gascon Malbec.

“It is a great wine from Mendoza, Argentina,” said Café Du Luxe owner Carles.

Since 1984, the wines of Don Miguel Gascon have been recognized for the rich, smooth flavors that come from Argentina’s Mendoza wine region. High altitude vineyards situated along the Cordillera of the Andes Mountains produce full mature grapes for this classic Malbec. It is full bodied and elegant with soft, round tannins, layered with flavors of blackberry, blueberry, dark cherry, and a hint of mocha. 

Mini-cakes for maximum enjoyment

Beginning this month, Cafe Du Luxe has begun offering Mini-King Cakes in honor of Mardi Gras. Orders of six or more will come with a baby (toy). Please provide us at least one day’s notice for orders of six or more.

Taunting and beads not included.

A Valentine’s Day treat for two

On Valentine’s Day weekend, the cafe will offer special meal combinations including: Wine or Champagne, a choice of two Entree-Appetizers, two Side Salads, a choice of Dessert, Chocolate covered Strawberries and Coffee. Stop by or call the cafe for more details.

 Supporting the arts

Cafe Du Luxe will be sponsoring one of the documentary films at this year’s Thin Line Film Festival (Feb. 17-21), Texas’ international documentary film festival.

Cafe Du Luxe and Thin-Line will co-brand bottled water for this event.

Thin Line Film Fest is an international documentary film festival held in Denton, Texas – just north of the Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex.

Thin Line Film Fest is the only documentary film festival in Texas. Thin Line screens interesting and exciting traditional documentaries, as well as mockumentaries, docufictions, docudramas and any other film that blurs the line between fact and fiction or that pushes the boundaries of the documentary genre.Each year, the program includes fictional documentaries.

Try Denton’s finest salmon appetizer

Be sure to stop by and try it for half price. Café Du Luxe features Happy Hour from 4-7 p.m. Monday through Friday, with half-priced appetizers and $1 off house wines and beers.

When her first opportunity arose to take a photography class her junior year in high school, Emily Penn leaped at the chance to delve into her longtime passion.

There, a photography teacher saw real promise and mentored the teenager and her penchant for camera work.

When Penn graduated in 2008 from the University of North Texas with a visual arts degree, she immediately hoped to share her photographic collection with the world. Her opportunities to showcase her art were limited, however. She waits tables in a Denton restaurant and in a Lewisville restaurant.

But her work has found a home on the walls of Café Du Luxe, Denton’s newest and most exciting bistro. An entire wall of the café is dedicated solely for featuring some of the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth area’s brightest and most exciting artists.

“It’s a really nice venue for hanging my art,” said Penn, 22, referring to the large wall space.

Featured art is displayed monthly with a “meet the artist” night on the third Sunday evening of the month. Penn was selected as the November artist. Three other artists have had monthly showings, J. Lynn Kelly, Scott Focke and Joan Hart. Penn is the first to showcase her talents through photography.

Penn said she has always been interested in the visual, partly due to her interest in her father’s job as an architect. It was an easy transition to photography.

“The mind has the freedom to pick and perceive reality in its own way,” Penn said. “A camera, however, interprets spatial reality and records it as a two-dimensional image resembling the actual location.

“An unaltered photograph represents a single point perspective of a space while the human eye can observe the same space and create a three-dimensional manifestation in the mind.”

Through her photographs, Penn said, she is reconciling the difference between her personal memories and a camera’s visual memory.

One of her recent series is My Mind’s Eye, is a visual interpretation of memories of specific locations that Penn frequently visits or notices.

“Even though I am a photographer, my memories do not resemble photographs,” Penn said. “My objective, in visually communicating my memories, is influenced by certain aspects of cubism such as the reconstruction of a subject from more than one perspective.”

In My Mind’s Eye, Penn said she uses the computer as an instrument to merge photographs from various angles “to allow a two-dimensional medium, such as photography, to represent multiple vantage points.” These were created through PhotoShop manipulation.

Cuisine

The Café Du Luxe menu features breakfast pastries, sandwiches, salads, soups, evening appetizers and decadent desserts. Breakfast pastries are baked on site daily. Salads, sandwiches and evening appetizers are made to order, not pre-packaged. Customers say the artisan bread alone is worth a trip to Café Du Luxe. For those who abstain from meat, Café Du Luxe offers a Veggie Sandwich: fresh romaine, ripe tomatoes, zesty red onion and sliced tomato topped with sprouts and served with cream cheese.

Tea

Café Du Luxe is pleased to present a wide selection of Numi Organic Teas. Cafe Du Luxe also features “Numi’s Leaves of Art” hand-sewn and handcrafted flowering tea line. Handpicked premium white tea buds, top two green tea leaves, select Oolong leaves or golden-tipped black tea are hand-sewn around flowers into bundles or rosettes by artisans in China. When steeped in hot water, these rare “Leaves of Art” slowly blossom into a bouquet of breathtaking shapes and exquisite flavors. Flavors available at Cafe Du Luxe include golden jasmine and lavender dream.

Coffee

Cafe Du Luxe café manager Sarah Vaughn is pleased to announce that two holiday specialty beverages are available. The head barista said the first is a Pumpkin Pie Latte that features DaVinci syrup. The other is a Peppermint Mocha that features Ghirardelli chocolate and DaVinci peppermint syrup. Both drinks tie in with the upcoming holidays,” Sarah said. “They’re also warm and cozy.” Café Du Luxe uses only Italy’s finest espresso machines and grinders by La Marzocco. Traditional brewed coffee drinkers can choose from light roast, darker roast and decaffeinated coffees from opening to closing every day. The beans are specially roasted and packaged for Café Du Luxe and are available for purchase in one pound packages.

Desserts

The desserts at Café Du Luxe will satisfy the most discriminating palates. A coffee house favorite is the New York Supreme Cheesecake: a grand cheesecake on a graham cracker crust. Looking for something that sounds as well as tastes rich? Go for the 24K Carrot Cake. You’ll get four big layers of carrot cake with butter cream cheese icing, finished with chopped walnuts.

Wine

Are you In a celebratory mood? Café Du Luxe is now offering a holiday Champagne. Lamarca, a prosecco, is a product of Italy and seems to be popular with jazz aficionados who enjoy the jazz music that is featured at the café on occasion. Café Du Luxe also serves wines for every palate, including its specialty wines. Café Du Luxe offers four tiers of wine: House, Featured, Specialty and Private Reserve. All wines except the house wines are available for purchase by the bottle. There’s truly something for everyone. You can get a $5 house wine or go all the way up to their most expensive, the Beaulieu Vineyard: BV Tapestry, which sells for $105 a bottle.

Cuisine

The Cafe Du Luxe menu features breakfast pastries, sandwiches, salads, soups, evening appetizers and decadent desserts. Breakfast pastries are baked on site daily. Salads, sandwiches and evening appetizers are made to order, not pre-packaged. The newest creation is a hot Grilled Chicken sandwich that features Swiss Cheese, their famous Peppered Bacon, served on their signature artisan French bread. The owner, David Carles, said he wanted to introduce the café’s first hot sandwich just in time for the upcoming cooler weather.

Tea

For tea lovers, Cafe Du Luxe is pleased to present a wide selection of Numi Organic Teas. And for you Chai Lovers, Cafe Du Luxe not only offers Chai, but is one of the few café’s that offer Maté. If you’ve never heard of Maté, it’s a little like Chai but with more zip! It’s nothing like fully loaded coffee. It’s a kinder, gentler zip. Maté’s energy is pleasant, controlled and non-addictive. The people of the rain forest believe it burns calories and boosts metabolism and can keep blood pressure in a more blissful state.

Coffee

Ever wonder what happened to those unique coffee cafés that invested quality time in preparing you a perfect cappuccino or latte? Cafe Du Luxe uses only Italy’s finest espresso machines and grinders by La Marzocco. Traditional brewed coffee drinkers can choose from light roast, darker roast and decaffeinated coffees from opening to closing every day. The beans are specially roasted and packaged for Cafe Du Luxe and are available for purchase in one pound packages.

Desserts

The desserts at Cafe Du Luxe will satisfy the most discriminating palates. A coffee house favorite is the gourmet turtle cheesecake, a New York Style cheesecake resting on a thick layer of fudge covered with caramel sauce and garnished with chopped pecans, all on a graham cracker crust. Looking for something that sounds as well as tastes rich? Go for the 24K Carrot Cake. You’ll get four big layers of carrot cake with butter cream cheese icing, finished with chopped walnuts.

Wine

Cafe Du Luxe serves wines for every palate. A new addition is an Italian Sparkling Wine called Lamarca, a prosecco (medium sweet). Barista P.J. Kryfko said it is a dessert type wine, which could be paired with any of Cafe Du Luxe’s delicious desserts, including the 24K Carrot Cake. Cafe Du Luxe offers four tiers of wine: House, Featured, Select and Private Reserve. All wines, except the house wines, are available for purchase by the bottle. There’s truly something for everyone. You can get a $5 house wine or go all the way up to their most expensive, the Beaulieu Vineyard: BV Tapestry, which is priced at $105 a bottle.

Art happens. No hovel is safe from it; no prince may depend on it; the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about. – James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

Denton artist Joan Hart identifies strongly with that artist of long ago.

“Art just happens. That’s the way I feel about it,” Hart said. “It sends me into whimsical worlds where luscious, vivid colors bring fantasies to life. It’s not logical. It’s magical. It just happens.”

Hart’s magical world will be on display from 5-7 p.m.Oct. 18 at Café Du Luxe, Denton’s newest and most exciting coffee and wine café.

The café offers private label coffees, some of the world’s finest wines and a menu featuring breakfast pastries, sandwiches, salads, soups, evening appetizers and decadent desserts.

In addition to treating the sense of taste and smell, Café Du Luxe offers a visual treat.

While some coffee cafés may feature a local artist from time to time or dedicate only a limited amount of space for the artist to display his or her talent, Café Du Luxe is going the extra mile. An entire wall of the café has been designated solely for the purpose of featuring some of the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area’s brightest and most exciting artists.

Featured art will be displayed monthly with a “meet the artist” night on the third Sunday evening of the month.

Hart is excited about being chosen to showcase her talent.

Although she was born in Salem, Mass., and graduated from Northeastern University in Boston with a bachelor of arts degree, Hart makes Denton her home.

“It’ll be fun for me and my friends to get together,” she said of the Sunday night gathering.

Her foray into art followed an unusual path. She was a journalist most of her life, writing as a newswoman and columnist for The Tampa Times in Florida. She also wrote for The Los Angeles Times, among many other publications. Her assignments ranged from police reporting to investigative reporting to features.

Always a creative soul, she studied art throughout the years in California and Texas with several well-known artists. Hart continues her study of art as a world traveler. She has been selected in many local and national juried shows over the years.

Her art has been featured in various galleries and institutes all over California and Texas. She is an active member of the Visual Arts Society of Texas and the Southwestern Watercolor Society.

Hart’s paintings, reminiscent of Fauvism, derive from subconscious memories of places like California, Italy, Mexico and New Mexico.

She is unable to describe how she gets her inspiration.

“It’s just magical,” Hart said.

“I don’t plan what I paint. It just happens,” she said. “It just comes to me.”

Her colorful paintings have colorful titles as well, including: Whimsical Days, Pink Sun and Boobies.

Many painters would envy the prolific painter.

She has 27 works of art being showcased at the coffee café and many more at home.

“Sometimes I paint two or three paintings a day,” Hart said.

Café Du Luxe is Denton’s newest and most exciting coffee, wine, music and art café.

And like any good music and art, there’s a story behind the new business.

It begins in 2005 when David Carles learned he was being riffed from his 15-year-long job at American Express. He found himself in a situation all too familiar these days.

“I was a financial consultant in corporate America,” he said. And then, nothing.

The Minneapolis resident turned to his wife, Jana Etheridge, and they began searching for options for themselves and their family of four.

They began to see it as an opportunity. Jana’s No. 1 priority was moving closer to family in Oklahoma and escaping the mind-numbing Minnesota winters.

They settled on Denton, liking its small city with a big city feel.

Jana found a job in the corporate world. But David was ready to follow a longtime dream.

“I like coffee and I love wine,” said the 53-year-old entrepreneur. He also appreciated art and had served as the frontman for a rock band, The Rapid Fire Rock ‘n’ Roll Show.

So he hit on the idea of a coffee house that would feature four of his favorite themes: coffee, wine, music and art.

The resulting concoction was Café du Luxe.

“It was not a hard leap,” David said.

But it wasn’t a quick one, either. He spent more than three years researching existing franchises and possible competitors. He soon realized that his concept of four cafes in one would be a welcome addition to the Denton community.

On July 31, Café du Luxe opened at 3101 Unicorn Lake Blvd. The name means café of the rich, David said.

“Not rich as in expensive,” he said. “I want my place to enrich people’s lives. Our mission is to help our customers and employees enjoy the richness of their everyday lives”

“My wife calls it upscale casual,” David said.

In addition to serving private label coffees and some of the world’s finest wines, its menu also features breakfast pastries, sandwiches, salads, soups, evening appetizers and decadent desserts.

Authentic Italian espresso machines dispense the finest lattes and cappuccinos in the city. Breakfast pastries are baked on site daily. Salads, sandwiches and evening appetizers are made to order, not pre-packaged. And the desserts will satisfy the most discriminating palates.

A small complement of imported beers is chilled and waiting. Music, local art and a contemporary atmosphere make Café Du Luxe the perfect alternative to those “on every street corner” cafes.

ART

What coffee café would be complete without art? While some cafes will feature a local artist from time to time or dedicate only a limited amount of space for the artist to display their talent, Café Du Luxe goes the extra mile. An entire wall of the café is dedicated solely for featuring some of the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth area’s brightest and most exciting artists. Featured art will be displayed monthly with a “meet the artist” night on the third Sunday evening of the month.

“They get to display their art for free,” David said, adding that the artists reap the entire profit from sales. “I like having the art, so it’s a win-win scenario.”

Artists who have been showcased are J. Lynn Kelly, Scott Focke and Joan Hart.

MUSIC

Does the sound system in your café remind you of your first car stereo?  Café Du Luxe utilizes sound reproduction equipment usually reserved

for the recording studio. Yamaha sound reproduction and fully digital recordings fill the café

with the finest sound you’ve ever heard. The Music

Menu has been designed to provide patrons with specific music genres on different days of the week and at different times of the day.

“We have jazz in the mornings, adult contemporary rock in the afternoons and a wide variety in the evenings,” David said.

WINE

Café Du Luxe serves wines for every palate. From house wines by Choncha y Toro, Bella Sera and Beringer, to more sophisticated wines by Casillero del Diablo, Sterling Vintner’s Collection, Ecco Domani and Casa Lapostolle, the café is sure to have a wine that will meet or exceed the guests’ expectations.

Café du Luxe offers four tiers: house, featured, select and private reserve. All wines except the house wines are available for purchase by the bottle.  Prices range from $5 for a glass of house wine to $105 for a bottle of BV Tapestry.

“I’m a Libra,” David said. “I enjoy making people happy.”

A recent customer provided a fitting testimonial. Tim Schoendorf of The Schoendorf Real Estate Group, said that “Denton has been needing something like this for a long time.”

“They really did it right,” he said of the contemporary atmosphere and impressive food and beverage offerings. “I could eat here morning, noon and night.”

And David is also a welcome addition. Not long after he opened, Schoendorf approached him about participating in a local fundraiser for the Nelson Children’s Center. David was quick to sign up and donate a percentage of people’s tabs on Oct. 5.

“I’ll sing (owner) David’s praises all day long,” Schoendorf said.

COFFEE

Ever wonder what happened to those unique coffee cafés that invested quality time in preparing you a perfect cappuccino or latte? Sadly to say, most baristas today simply push a button and walk away. Not at Café Du Luxe. The coffee café uses only Italy’s finest espresso machines and grinders by La Marzocco.

Traditional brewed coffee drinkers can choose from light roast, darker roast and decaffeinated coffees from opening to closing every day. The beans are specially roasted and packaged for Café Du Luxe and are available for purchase in one pound packages. Seasonal and one-of-a-kind packaged beans will be featured throughout the year.

For tea lovers, Café Du Luxe features Numi teas, including a unique flowering tea experience.

With a wide array of flavored drinks on hand, what does David like best?

“I like a great cup of black coffee,” he said.

LOCATION AND TIMES

Café Du Luxe is located at 3101 Unicorn Lake Blvd. It is open Monday-Thursday from 5:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday from 5:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Saturday from 6 a.m.-11 p.m. and Sunday from 7 a.m.-9 p.m.

“I hope someday to have five to seven more in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” David said.

David’s wife summed up the experience.

“The whole journey has been an incredibly exciting experience,” Jana said. It’s been stressful, challenging, enjoyable and rewarding. To see it really come alive has been a dream come true for us.”