Richard Hesse
Foujita
Family Fun The sushi bar at Foujita 2. Every year, upwards of 600,000 people trek to what is popularly known as “the biggest farm in France,” set up for a week in late February in the exhibition halls at Porte … Read More
Vintage
Vintage Value Serge Gainsbourg, who watches from the photos on the wall, would probably have approved of the wine list. It was the chalkboard wine list in the window that drew me to Vintage. It contained many of the top … Read More
Le Repaire de Cartouche
Dickensian Hideaway Dark-honey-colored wood paneling and quaint murals. Named after Cartouche, a notorious highwayman operating in and around Paris at the turn of the 18th century, Le Repaire de Cartouche, some food bloggers allege, practices its own form of highway … Read More
Mon Vieil Ami
Go East with Westermann The decor is clean and understated, with a half-timbered backdrop. In one of this restaurant’s previous incarnations, long, long before Mon Vieil Ami was launched four years ago by Antoine Westermann, the Michelin-starred (for his restaurant … Read More
Les Amis des Messina
Sideways to the Messinas’ The name of this Sicilian restaurant – Les Amis des Messina – refers to the friends of the Messina family, and the slick PR on the restaurant’s Web site says that the first restaurant on the … Read More
Le Grand Colbert
Vintage Lunch The fanciful “Pompeian” decor sets the tone. Le Grand Colbert is vintage Paris, a tour operator’s dream, except that the tour operators seem to leave it alone. After several unsuccessful attempts to book a table at a relatively … Read More
L’Oxalis
Mom-and-Pop Bistro Fusion The paneled walls don’t provide the ideal setting for the fine food and wine. As you turn into Rue Ferdinand Flocon in the further reaches of the 18th arrondissement, you are rewarded for the hike with a … Read More
Au Bascou
Basquing in Fine Food and Drink
Reading Jonathan Nossiter’s musings on wine, the universe and everything, reviewed here last week, and Hugh Johnson’s delightful A Life Uncorked, a Christmas gift, has made me eager to delve deeper into the dreadfully complicated world of wine, so I … Read More
Le Goût et le Pouvoir
Power Tastings & Power Brokers
The world has been going to the dogs ever since, back at the dawn of time, people began looking askance at the loutish offspring of their neighbors. It’s still going to the dogs as I write and, I sincerely trust, … Read More
Ribouldingue
Variety Meats: The Spice of Life The pretty, cozy interior of Ribouldingue, with mirrors to infinity. “Ribouldingue” is one of those yummy words that you can chew and chomp and turn over on your tongue like a well-polished oral worry-bead. … Read More