Albert Ménès Products & Boutique

[VivreManger]

Last time I was in Paris I picked up some Albert Menes (Ménès) [using both spellings so a google search will find it however you enter it] preserves at a Monoprix (I believe). They were quite good and considerably cheaper than the over-priced and over-hyped (imho) Christine Ferber competition.

So on my next trip I resolved to get more. Googling revealed their coordinates and various information that I wish to confirm:

http://www.albertmenes.fr/

Their retail coordinates are:

Boutique Albert Ménès, 41, Bd Malesherbes (and rue Roquepine), 75008 Paris

Tel 01 42 66 95 63 / Fax 01 40 06 00 61

boutique@albertmenes.fr [not working??]

le lundi de 15h à 19h, du mardi au vendredi de 10h30 à 14h et de 15h à 19h.

Métro :Saint-Augustin

Obviously this is a shop that still keeps what we used to call bankers hours.

They stock a full line of almost everything one could imagine canned, bottled, bagged, that could be drunk or eaten.

Curiously this is not a brand name that pops up regularly in the blogosphere. Does anyone know why? I also want to confirm that its business hours are accurately posted.

Anyone know its products and can make some recommendations?

ADDED Later.

For those who have it handy, Boutique Albert Ménès is in Gault et Millau 2007. However it does not appear with any substantive detail or reviewers' comments in the on-line guide,

http://www.fra.webcity.fr/guide_paris/AccueilVille

though its basic coordinates - - no hours -- are listed.

Edited June 23, 2007 by VivreManger (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

le lundi de 15h à 19h, du mardi au vendredi de 10h30 à 14h et de 15h à 19h.

Obviously this is a shop that still keeps what we used to call bankers hours. 

Those look like standard French openings to me. Except for the grand magazins, you can't go wrong by assuming that your target shop will be closed at least mornings on Mondays, and for lunch on other days that it is open. In fact, you are safe to think a shop closed from 12h30 to 15h. We've gone on many a fruitless goosechase assuming otherwise.

[VivreManger]

True enough.

While many shops still close for lunch most have at least one day open on a weekend. The hours, as it happens, suit me fine, but they are worth noting for the convenience of others. They do suggest a more intimate, traditional, and leisurely attitude toward commerce.

Clearly Ménès has not gone the way of Hediard and Fauchon, not to mention la Grande Epicerie de Paris. F. for instance is open 8h à 21h, du lundi au samedi. Hediard in the same neighborhood as Ménès, Lundi - Samedi 09:00 - 21:30. With the GrandEpice having hours comparable to both.

Edited June 23, 2007 by VivreManger (log)

[Felice]

Anyone know its products and can make some recommendations?

←

I love their sardines, but haven't tried much else.

[Ptipois]

Couldn't agree more about Christine Ferber.

Most everything from Albert Ménès is quite good. Nice old-fashioned, but not retro, French épicerie fine, with an eclectic and personal touch. 0% hype and 100% sincerity.