Why Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dined next to the restroom in Carmel

Forming a parasocial relationship with the world’s biggest pop star and her tight end boyfriend is one thing. Making a special trip to Carmel to retrace the steps of their recent getaway is another thing entirely

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Why Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dined next to the restroom in Carmel
‘Just a fun vibe’
A lunch rush packs La Bicyclette in Carmel, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2024.
A lunch rush packs La Bicyclette in Carmel, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2024.
Andrew Pridgen/SFGATE
By Andrew Pridgen,
Central Coast Contributing Editor
Aug 30, 2024
Forming a parasocial relationship with the world’s biggest pop star and her tight end boyfriend is one thing. Making a special trip to Carmel to retrace the steps of their recent getaway is another thing entirely.

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But that’s exactly what happened on a mid-August Monday, dispatched to the wealthy oceanfront town to navigate the village’s address-free streets to find out exactly where they went and whether some of the rumors about their stay were true.

The visit also sought to find the answer to the most burning question — and most popular tidbit of gossip circulating around town about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s visit: Did they use vouchers to dine out at a popular downtown bistro?

Suckers for 10% off their next appetizer, stars are just like us.

‘Just a fun vibe’
It’s just past noon on a cloudless, fog-free weekday, and it seems tougher than normal to get a seat at La Bicyclette. Carmel’s ultimate please-everyone bistro features a host, framed by the small space’s doorway, doing an impressive juggling act of texting and calling patrons with reservations, seating walk-ups, and keeping track of it all with a color-coded sheet and a handful of highlighters.

The conversations among patrons lucky enough to get a seat are lively and spill out onto the sidewalk, drawing even more people in. The restaurant is small but not cramped, rustic but not forced. In the middle sits a blazing oven, where pizzas are being swapped out at an alarming pace by a pair of pizzaiolos who are well-choreographed in a familiar dance that forces multiple patrons to pause mid-order and decide they need a pie as well.

It’s the perfect spot for tourists and locals alike, celebrities and normal folk. It’s a regular recommendation by many of the village’s boutique hotel concierges but also equally fun to stumble across when one visits Carmel on a romantic getaway. All of this convenience and quaintness in one spot makes it easy to see why Swift and Kelce chose the restaurant for a date night back in April.

“The energy, food quality is just outstanding, just a fun vibe,” La Bicyclette general manager John Gehrman told SFGATE during a recent visit. “And you can go real high-end with entrees and wine, or you can have pizza and beer, and it’s just as good. I’ve been doing this for a living for 50 years — just a little, exciting restaurant. Just a fun spot to be in whether you’re a customer or manager.”

Fun was the order of the day for two Carmel residents and their guest finishing up lunch and making plans to walk around the blocks surrounding the village’s main thoroughfare, Ocean Avenue. The out-of-towner had traveled that day from Surrey in the UK, and La Bicyclette was, by his request, the first stop.

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Central Coast
Why Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dined next to the restroom in Carmel
‘Just a fun vibe’
A lunch rush packs La Bicyclette in Carmel, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2024.
A lunch rush packs La Bicyclette in Carmel, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2024.
Andrew Pridgen/SFGATE
By Andrew Pridgen,
Central Coast Contributing Editor
Aug 30, 2024
Forming a parasocial relationship with the world’s biggest pop star and her tight end boyfriend is one thing. Making a special trip to Carmel to retrace the steps of their recent getaway is another thing entirely.

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But that’s exactly what happened on a mid-August Monday, dispatched to the wealthy oceanfront town to navigate the village’s address-free streets to find out exactly where they went and whether some of the rumors about their stay were true.

The visit also sought to find the answer to the most burning question — and most popular tidbit of gossip circulating around town about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s visit: Did they use vouchers to dine out at a popular downtown bistro?

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Suckers for 10% off their next appetizer, stars are just like us.

‘Just a fun vibe’
It’s just past noon on a cloudless, fog-free weekday, and it seems tougher than normal to get a seat at La Bicyclette. Carmel’s ultimate please-everyone bistro features a host, framed by the small space’s doorway, doing an impressive juggling act of texting and calling patrons with reservations, seating walk-ups, and keeping track of it all with a color-coded sheet and a handful of highlighters.

A host stands at the ready for the lunch rush at La Bicyclette in Carmel, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2024.
A host stands at the ready for the lunch rush at La Bicyclette in Carmel, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2024.

Andrew Pridgen/SFGATE
The conversations among patrons lucky enough to get a seat are lively and spill out onto the sidewalk, drawing even more people in. The restaurant is small but not cramped, rustic but not forced. In the middle sits a blazing oven, where pizzas are being swapped out at an alarming pace by a pair of pizzaiolos who are well-choreographed in a familiar dance that forces multiple patrons to pause mid-order and decide they need a pie as well.

It’s the perfect spot for tourists and locals alike, celebrities and normal folk. It’s a regular recommendation by many of the village’s boutique hotel concierges but also equally fun to stumble across when one visits Carmel on a romantic getaway. All of this convenience and quaintness in one spot makes it easy to see why Swift and Kelce chose the restaurant for a date night back in April.

“The energy, food quality is just outstanding, just a fun vibe,” La Bicyclette general manager John Gehrman told SFGATE during a recent visit. “And you can go real high-end with entrees and wine, or you can have pizza and beer, and it’s just as good. I’ve been doing this for a living for 50 years — just a little, exciting restaurant. Just a fun spot to be in whether you’re a customer or manager.”

A pair of pizzaiolos stay busy at La Bicyclette in Carmel, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2024.
A pair of pizzaiolos stay busy at La Bicyclette in Carmel, Calif., on Aug. 12, 2024.

Andrew Pridgen/SFGATE
Fun was the order of the day for two Carmel residents and their guest finishing up lunch and making plans to walk around the blocks surrounding the village’s main thoroughfare, Ocean Avenue. The out-of-towner had traveled that day from Surrey in the UK, and La Bicyclette was, by his request, the first stop.

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“What brought me here?” Mick Channing asked rhetorically. “Well, United Airlines to start with — it was a long, torturous journey from London. And then a few buses and eventually here.”

Was the trip worth it?

The possibly jet-lagged visitor made a sweeping gesture with his arm and panned the restaurant before responding, “What do you think?”

The trio had sampled house favorites, including the caprese di ravello, which is heirloom tomatoes, basil, buffalo mozzarella and pesto, as well as the wood-fired escargot served with brioche.

“The food’s fabulous here,” Channing’s dining companion Meg Salyer said. “It’s a very special place in Carmel.”

But is it ever too crowded? “No,” she said. “I don’t recognize it necessarily as touristy.”

A ‘quirky corner space’
If there is one place in Carmel that caters to the needs of both tourists and locals — and packs them in since its earliest days — it’s La Bicyclette, Gehrman explained. “We balance that by taking reservations but also keeping space open for walkins only,” he said. “At 49 seats, it seems bigger than it is. But there’s still a way to get in. Here in town, people book out two to three weeks in advance, and we still want a way for people to get in.”

And the ability to make that happen is baked into the place from its start as La Boheme, which was first opened in 1974 by restaurateur brothers Gaston and Walter Georis. La Boheme was, at first, a prix fixe restaurant that seemingly elevated Carmel to a foodie destination 50 years ago.

Based on the success of La Boheme, the pair opened another hit, Casanova, in 1978. The two restaurants have been staples in the community ever since, often attracting luminaries to sample rustic, quality European fare. And while La Boheme eventually gave way to La Bicyclette in 2015, the raves and bistro roots are still main features today. As the Michelin Guide describes the restaurant, “The quirky corner space offers petite but comfortable wooden chairs and tables, set beneath hanging copper pots and, of course, a bicycle or two.

“The kitchen focuses on comforting seasonal cuisine with a California-Mediterranean slant, plus a handful of pizzas and fantastic breads fired in their wood-burning oven,” the guide continues. “At the same time, they are dedicated to beloved French classics.”

Though the brothers divided up the businesses in 2014 (Gaston, who died in 2021, and his side of the family took La Bicyclette, and Walter and his side of the family took over Casanova), the two restaurants often share staff, including Gehrman and La Bicyclette head chef Obdiel Luna, both Casanova alumni.

Luna, who has been head chef at La Bicyclette for eight years, explained that he likes the slightly more frenetic pace of the restaurant, which serves up to three meals a day and can swing wildly between a casual meetup spot and a fine dining experience.

He also enjoys the challenge of frequent menu changes and told SFGATE that he and his kitchen staff of 30 serve house mainstays like the Parisian gnocchi and steak au poivre every day but also find time to switch it up. They fold in new items at least three times a week based on the seasons and wherever inspiration takes them.

“We go through Europe a couple weeks a year and go explore,” Luna told SFGATE. “We go to the bistros and give our interpretation of the experience — we want to share the experience with the customer. We try to keep the menu distinct.

“You have to make a good environment, make everyone feel good. You want them to be themselves in the kitchen. Then, you yourself can express yourself better.”

Nobody puts Taylor in a corner
As for famous folks descending on La Bicyclette, Swift and Kelce weren’t the first, Gehrman said, noting that Reese Witherspoon and her team often make the restaurant a stop when they’re in the area filming HBO’s “Big Little Lies.” Even though he’s waited on stars like Oprah and Robert Redford, Swift may be the biggest of all, he admitted.

“It was nuts,” he said. “Everyone was calling for the story. I don’t know how they all found out. We were very careful. The bodyguards set the thing up, talked to me, and we brought them in the back way.”

Gehrman led me on a quick tour of the back area of the restaurant, where a rectangular table sits in a dark — and, some might say, romantic — corner adjacent to the kitchen and the restrooms. It’s separated, barely, from the main dining area by a curtain.

Wait, so Kelce and Swift were sitting along the only main route to the restroom? “Yes,” Gehrman smiled, noting that it’s the only private section of the tiny, bustling restaurant. “But it was very cool, they had fun. Nobody took a picture.”

With that, Gehrman imitated someone doing a very big double-take: “But people would respect them,” he continued. “People that did go to the restroom would kind of recognize them. You could tell they were kind of freaking out, but they just kept walking.”

The superstar couple enjoyed the gnocchi and the steak specialties, noshed on some appetizers and pizza, drank some wine, and overall had a lovely experience, Gehrman said. “They were incredible, really nice,” he said. “They loved everything, and I think they had a great time.”

On that day, my dining companion and I sampled some pizza, bread and oysters, drank a beer, and mostly focused on doing what one does at La Bicyclette: people watch. The place feels special, buzzy and filled with the types of folks other people seem to gravitate toward, just a little more put together, a little richer or maybe slightly more interesting than your standard lunch crowd.

Even if dining at La Bicyclette feels like being at the cool-kids table, that still doesn’t answer the question: Is there any truth to the rumor that Swift and Kelce got the idea to go to the restaurant because of its coupons?

“I don’t know why the bodyguards selected us,” Gehrman concluded. “There’s a lot of word of mouth around us, so … I’m just so happy they selected us.”