Parigi

You are right. The other couple is wrong. For one night, your group can dine separately, no? Then everyone's happy.

"One set of friends showed up hot and sweaty after a day of sightseeing and were treated like eccentric millionaires (they're not. Not millionaires, anyway), so dress code isn't demanding either." Thanx for this info. Am not sure how many of us are eager to dine next to non-dresscode-conscious sweaty people, so it's very good to know.

Dumonet is wonderful. Other nice meat&potato-style bistros are Severo and Les Papilles.

I agree with weinoo. What is best? How can we guess at your concept of the best? For the overwhelm factor, nothing beats the Boqueria. In terms of quality and compactness, Santa Caterina is certainly my favorite. You see, I find it much easier - and less NYT-style-self-congratulatory - to use the word favorite instead of best. But I would let someone who has visited all, I mean all, the markets of Barcelona to try to answer this question...

Was in San Sebastian last weekend. There was no smoking at all in all the pintxos bars in the Parte Vieja.

Nice? Had a great - and inexpensive - lunch at Flaveur, which just got its first Michelin star.

Now I see. And the reason why I became confused is because not all markets have stalls. Only weekly markets do. Montmartre does not have markets with stalls like Richard Lenoir or Maubert or Raspail that I can think of (except the far north rue des Poteaux market which I remember has a market everyday but stalls only Sunday morning). The rue Lepic market has permanent food shops. One (very good) butcher has one stall outside. The place d'Anvers has stalls only, because it is a weekly, hence non-permanent, market. And when I say a market is the kind that opens everyday, I mean the conventional times, which means everyday except Sunday afternoon and Monday, as you must know and will excuse my radoter-ing. Lastly I find the weekly markets' food in general to be better, fresher and cheaper, with real maraîchers.

"The tour will include tastings at several of the stalls and also include a neighborhood wine shop, patisserie and fromagerie." Could you explain what you mean by stalls in Montmartre. Montmartre. My fave markets are: - Rue Lepic - place d'Anvers (actually in the 9th but on the endge of Montmartre), a weekly market in Fridayd afternoon. Boulangerie: Grenier à pain on rue des Abbesses. Got the Meilleure Baguette prize last year, which means it is the current purveyor of Sarko and Carla. Fromagerie. The one next to the Grenier à pain is quite good, but better yet are the Ferme Saint Hubert on 36 Rue Rochechouart, and the gentleman on a wheelchair manning a small stall on the place d'Anvers market, The Ultimate Cheese Guy mentioned in this article: http://www.paris-update.com/fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=435&Itemid=127 Pastries: down the hill at Landemaine on rue des Martyrs. or Aurore Capucine, nearer to Ferme St Hubert. Wine shop: - the caviste on rue d'Orsel near rue des Martyrs, or - the caviste on rue des Abbesses (n°43?) witha humongous ginger tabby sleeping on one motorbike or another in front The Anvers market and The Ultimate Cheese Guy are the things that I would miss when I am away from Paris for too long.

If you are going to be based in San Sé, why not rent an apartment? This way it is not only less expensive, but you also get a kitchen and can use the faaaaabulous markets there. Last but not least, even for a food-obsessed city like San Sé, eating out for all the meals becomes tiring sooner or later. The best is to use the markets and get acquainted with local ingredients and cook simple meals, then go out to have better quality meals, eliminating the kind of "do" meals - in the sense of this'll-do. And the second you have a kitchen and frequent the market, you suddenly find yourself truly entering the lifestyle and are no longer a tourist.

"There will be four of us and only one is a veggie so it doesnt need to be a veggie restaurant just somehwere with a couple of choices for each course." Why didn't you say so? In that case all the good restos can accommodate the vegetarian. However as I mentioned above, can't guarantee that the veg is not cooked in a meat-based broth, which you probably know is a very French way of cooking.

In Paris there is fine dining, there is vegetarian dining. Sorriest I have nevere seen the 3 words together. There are two quite good vegetarian restos, neither of which serves French food or could be described as fine dining: Krishna Bhravan and Tiein Hiang. Nearly all of the carnivorous restaurants serve tasty vegetables, which may or may not involve a meat broth in the preparation.

"Or could someone have theoretically have shown up at, say, 9:00pm or so and gotten seated without a res?" Does this mean you had left by 9pm? One explanation could be just as you had guessed. You know in that stratosphere, a table is reserved for one party for the entire evening. Diners can arrive at 8pm or at 10pm, but not much later since the kitchen probably closes around 10:30 or 11pm. A few years ago I saw a conspicuously empty table at Guy Savoy, which was filled near 11pm by an ultra celeb who promptly grossed out all the other diners by lighting up a fat cigar.

Could you explain more? Are you familiar with the ferme-auberges? And how would you compare them?

"View PostParigi, on 12 January 2011 - 07:32 PM, said: This perceived absence of vegetable is a big mystery to me. But that's what I'm saying...it wasn't perceived." But cher Weinoo, everything is perceived. I do not say this with any irritation or negative feeling. I am mystified and amused. It's as though we had gone to two Barcelonas in two universes. But I was not hallucinating when the faaaab asparagus - a daily specialty in season - at El Quim in the Boqueria market screamed: bite me, bite me, bite me. I had to, just had to. (OK maybe I was hullucinating slightly...) Ditto the shishitos that Pep forced down my throat at Cal Pep... I wish there were a drooling emoticon. The only cultural confusion that I can think of is that in many cities in north America, a salad is an obligatory sidedish. In Spain it is not obligatory. You have to order it separately.

Living in Paris, we eat a lot of fresh vegetables although we are not vegetarian. In our frequent travels to Barcelona, we never noticed a lack of vegetables in restaurants. The salads seem to be mainly a simple salad for clearing the palate, which is fine with me. I personally like cooked (not overcooked) vegetables. In the Barcelona markets, vegetables are plenty and fabulous. Shopping in markets then cooking at home is a delight. This perceived absence of vegetable is a big mystery to me.