Bistro Look

[molto e]

I am going over to Paris for a week to do a little research for a restaurant that I will be opening in 2006. We would like to fashion the look after the French Bistro. What are the ones that have caught your eye? This is my current list of places that I am scheduled for, though this is not all that we will go to; L'Ami Louis, Brasserie Lipp, Pierre Gagnaire, Le Bristol, Le Comptoir, Ze Kitchen Gallerie, Atelier Maitre Albert, Aux Lyonnais, Table de Robuchon. This list includes some places that we just want to eat at and I want to try to get to Chez George and Chez Denise, but I am not sure if they are on holiday?

Thanks,

Molto E

p.s. Is there a specific feature that a bistro has that you like?

Edited August 21, 2005 by molto e (log)

[John Talbott]

I am going over to Paris for a week to do a little research for a restaurant that I will be opening in 2006. We would like to fashion the look after the French Bistro. What are the ones that have caught your eye? This is my current list of places that I am scheduled for, though this is not all that we will go to; L'Ami Louis, Brasserie Lipp, Pierre Gagnaire, Le Bristol, Le Comptoir, Ze Kitchen Gallerie, Atelier Maitre Albert, Aux Lyonnais, Table de Robuchon. This list includes some places that we just want to eat at and I want to try to get to Chez George and Chez Denise, but I am not sure if they are on holiday?

Thanks,

Molto E

p.s. Is there a specific feature that a bistro has that you like?

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What a great mission.

It depends on what your vision is. If it's the bistro of your parents and my generation in the 1950's - l'Auberge Bressane written up by me and Sebastien Demorand and Ribaut etc. Mimeographed menus, classic dishes, wonderful crusty decor

Next most evocative of ancient times is Le Regalade under Bruno Doucet - crusty bread cut to order, terrines of pate, a bit more low ceiling, packed, smoky, like the movies bistro

A totally new but looking old, recreated bistro look is at the Duc de Richelieu

If it's an old but big bistro refurbished to beat the band it's Aux Lyonnais.

If it's a tiny, almost quirky place - le Vieux Ami.

Incredible food with 18 covers but totally neo-modern-bistro look is Cerisaie

l'Ami Louis is certainly the standard 1980's look and Apple still loves it

Lipp, well it's a brasserie so it has the brasserie look like Julien, Terminus Nord, Bofinger, plus the snob appeal plus the celebrities

Bristol & Gagniere - haute haute cuisine, no whiff of bistro

Ze is the most modern new successful place but wouldn't strike most Americans as a bistro, it's just too white bright and gleaming (I love it) - the l'Atelier of Joel R. is pretentious (doors that cannot be opened from outside), glitzy (modern, stools at the bar, hip wait staff, good food but again I'd never think of the word bistro)

For a seafood bistrot the Bistrot du Dome (white and blue and terrific)

For a wine bar/bistro look - Les Papilles

If you're mainly interested in scoping places for the look versus sampling the food - eat at Regalade, Ze, Cerisaie, Bristol + Bistrot du Dome and just walk into the others; I don't think anyone would object to your walking in, asking for a card, looking around and leaving. The other thing I've been doing lately is grazing - going one place for oysters, a second for the main and a third for dessert. Makes ordering wine a bit tricky but ultimately doable.

In any case, after your week we'd love to hear what caught your eye.

Finally, your last sentence reveals a problem in all this blue-skying - what's open; you'll have to look them up, go to the website thread now running, and/or telephone. Folks are just now winding up their vacations and places are reopening irregularly. Good luck.

[molto e]

John,

Thank you so much for such a thoughtful answer, you have given me alot to CHEW ON. I look forward to the trip and leave later today.

Thank You,

Molto E

[Felice]

John,

        Thank you so much for such a thoughtful answer, you have given me alot  to CHEW ON. I look forward to the trip and leave later today.

Thank You,

Molto E

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I was just looking through the following book (in Paris) the other day, Au Vrai Zinc Parisien, which was a book full of beautiful old-time Paris bistros. You might want to look through it if you see a book store.

[Felice]

I have a book called 100 Lieux de Memoire, 200 ans d'histoire, Restaurants de Paris that I just glanced through for some other ideas.

I haven't been, but you might want to try Le Moulin a Vent, an old-fashioned Parisian bistro in the 5th. They say that the decor has remained unchanged since the 1940s. It looks beautiful.

20 rue des Fosses Saint Bernard, 5th.

Has anyone been?

Also, Brasserie Balzar and Polidor might be good choices as well.

[Bux]

What a great mission.

It depends on what your vision is.

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I think it goes without saying that a new Parisian bistro created by Parisians for Parisians, might look nothing like a bistro.

Lipp, well it's a brasserie so . . .

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I'm not sure why, but Americans seem to use brasserie and bistro interchangeably although they are very different types of places. Balzar, is a smaller brasserie that physically perhaps closely resembles a bistro in some way. Bistros are generally rather small, tend to serve traditional dishes (should I say that traditional bistros serve traditional dishes?) and ideally the owner should be in the kitchen with his wife at the cash register. This is not a model on which retro bistros owned by three star chefs operate. Brasseries are less personal establishments that tend to be open throughout the day and where one may eat a larger variety of dishes.

The other thing I've been doing lately is grazing - going one place for oysters, a second for the main and a third for dessert. Makes ordering wine a bit tricky but ultimately doable.

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Which brings up my last thought on the matter. I've always been led to believe it is almost disrespectful (to French tradition, more than to the owner) to dine in a restaurant or bistro and order less then three courses, although it might be permissible for a svelte female diner to skip dessert, whereas brasseries are the place to grab a bite, a single course, a dozen oysters, a sandwich, etc. at any time of day. At one time in France, it seemed almost impossible, especially in a small towns without brasseries (a feature or larger cities) to find a light lunch. Nowadays places featuring salads and all sorts of one dish opportunities about in France. Has that affected the way people eat in bistros? Can one really enter a bistro in Paris and leave after having no more than a half dozen snails, a pate or other entrée (in the French sense of entry course or appetizer)?

[menton1]

Here's the look I love:

http://www.reservethebest.com/_fr_/restaurant.php?Id=316

Small, cozy, lively, and a small lovely menu with food from a chef that cares!

[John Talbott]

John,

         Thank you so much for such a thoughtful answer, you have given me alot   to CHEW ON. I look forward to the trip and leave later today.

Thank You,

Molto E

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Oh oh, that really throws an ideal list up against the wall of the reality of closings/openings in August.

I was going to suggest le Troquet but it may not be open either.

So, Felice's suggestion, to go the book route, makes a lot of sense. Another book resource is the Petit Lebey des Bistrots Parisiens which now that I'm there shows le Troquet closed 3 weeks in August (but which three weeks requires a call).

Polidor says every hour, every day, Felice noted the reopening of le Regalade on the August opening thread, Bistrot du Dome 365; the brasseries, 365.

[molto e]

Thank you for all your suggestions, I most definitely will purchase some books. My question relates to the "look" of the bistro as we will not be serving strictly bistro food.

[John Talbott]

Thank you for all your suggestions, I most definitely will purchase some books. My question relates to the "look" of the bistro as we will not be serving strictly bistro food.

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Ah. Then aside from Menton's suggestion there are two other books that have pix. One is called something like Best Restaurants in Paris, very glossy and overhyped, which actually has the same info as Menton's site and the other is historical - it may be the one Felice suggested. In any case go to FNAC and they should be there.

Also try John Whitings' "Whitings Writings" website for bistros, he has photos like the link I posted for Le Regalade.

Edited by John Talbott to amplify book-Website connection.

Edited August 21, 2005 by John Talbott (log)

[John Whiting]

I've communicated this privately to molto e, but I'll put it here for the benefit of others who may be interested. A sensational recent book of photos is bistrots brasseries & restaurants parisiens, ISBN 2-915337-09-8. It's available from Amazon.fr, which is where I got it. The photos are so great that you almost needn't eat the food.

The most informative and well-illustrated book in English, by far, is the Everyman Guide, Restaurants of Paris, 1994. A translation of a French original, it's an unbelievable research job. Out of print, of course, but likely to be avalable on an ABE search. The ISBN is 1-85715-846-6.

[fresh_a]

l'Ami Louis is certainly the standard 1980's look and Apple still loves it

80's look?

AMI LOUIS?!?

[Carlsbad]

Others for the "look", Chardenoux, Aux Charpentiers, and Fontaine de Mars.

[John Talbott]

l'Ami Louis is certainly the standard 1980's look and Apple still loves it

80's look?

AMI LOUIS?!?

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Well, even though it was founded in 1924 and frequented by American food-writers in the '50's and early '60's, I don't recall Americans flooding it until the '80's; thus I think when most folks think of '80's Parisian bistro style/atmosphere, l'Ami Louis is their standard.

[John Whiting]

I think when most folks think of '80's Parisian bistro style/atmosphere, l'Ami Louis is their standard.

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Most folks that I knew in the 80s didn't throw their Diners Club cards around quite that freely. Waverley Root wrote in 1969:

[l’Ami Louis’s fresh ingredients] cost money, but perhaps not as much as you will be asked to pay for it. This is the drawback at l’Ami Louis….The décor doesn’t account for the bill; it is old-fashioned bistro almost to the point of dinginess….[A]s all the tables are always full, there is no incentive to reduce prices….You may find yourself eating in the company of stage or movie stars here, whose duty it is to frequent overpriced places…Very expensive

A.J. Liebling said it very succinctly:

A man who is rich in his adolescence is almost doomed to be a dilettante at table. This is not because all millionaires are stupid, but because they are not impelled to experiment. In learning to eat, as in psychoanalysis, the customer, in order to profit, must be conscious of the cost.

[fresh_a]

I think when most folks think of '80's Parisian bistro style/atmosphere, l'Ami Louis is their standard.

But the point that I was making was that L'Ami Louis (although perhaps a bistro frequented much by Americans in the '80s) is NOT an "80's style bistro". It's pure 20's. That's all.