Not your everyday in Paris

[ewindels]

Cher gulletieres,

I'm visiting the city of Lights 12/26 - 30 with a couple, four lunches and dinners, we each get to pick one of each. One of their insistances is L'ami Louis, which from what I'm reading (both here and on other venues) is going to be old, heavy, dusty food drowned in demi glace. (For reference, one of their faves here in New York is Le Veau D'or, if you've ever even heard of it). As a counterfoil to this, I would love recommendation from gulleters acquainted with both New York and Paris to go someplace analagous to NYC's Cookshop, or Market Table: hearty-ish, but with a focus on the ingredients, not masking them or drowning them in sauces and gunk. Any thoughts or suggestions? I've been reading and reading, but my head is now spinning.

I would also love a reco for a lower priced place where one could sample a variety of really good, or at least interesting, wines (2-3 glasses a person). Doesn't have to have a huge list, but as long as I'm in France... And yes, I realize that with the current exchange rate, "reasonable" is an extremely mercurial term, but maybe where we could sample a bottle or two with food for... E100s each? Less?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[John Talbott]

Cher gulletieres,

I'm visiting the city of Lights 12/26 - 30 with a couple, four lunches and dinners, we each get to pick one of each.  One of their insistances is L'ami Louis, which from what I'm reading (both here and on other venues) is going to be old, heavy, dusty food drowned in demi glace.  (For reference, one of their faves here in New York is Le Veau D'or, if you've ever even heard of it).  As a counterfoil to this, I would love recommendation from gulleters acquainted with both New York and Paris to go someplace analagous to NYC's Cookshop, or Market Table: hearty-ish, but with a focus on the ingredients, not masking them or drowning them in sauces and gunk.  Any thoughts or suggestions?  I've been reading and reading, but my head is now spinning.

I would also love a reco for a lower priced place where one could sample a variety of really good, or at least interesting, wines (2-3 glasses a person).  Doesn't have to have a huge list, but as long as I'm in France...  And yes, I realize that with the current exchange rate, "reasonable" is an extremely mercurial term, but maybe where we could sample a bottle or two with food for... E100s each?  Less?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

←

Hi: You are spot on about l'Ami Louis - it's yesteryear's food much like Le Veau d'Or circa 1970 (I lived in NYC until 1985). Expensive rotisserie stuff, but if that's what they want OK. The actual closest to Le Veau d'Or would be places like Taillevent, Laperouse, Tour d'Argent + Laurent.

As for places like Cookshop, most new bio nonfiltered wine bars+ have named products (eg Bordier butter, charcuterie from Camdeborde frere, Cantin or Alleose cheese, etc). The newest is Les Racines where two members have eaten well recently but not posted yet and I had a good meal at the Breizh Cafe which is getting a lot of good press now.

As for wine places for 100E for two with two bottles, Les Papilles or Louis Vins would do the trick.

All of the above addresses, dates of closure, etc can be got by searching on the France Forum.

Happy eating.

[John Talbott]

Since this topic veered off into a discussion of Racines and "secret places" I split off those posts into a new topic. Thus we may return to the question: What is "Not your everyday in Paris."