January 9, 2014 by Aisling Greally
Ma Puce, mon lapin, ma biche, mon chou, ma poule, ma caille, ma cocotte…
These hidden terms of French endearment appear from the most unlikely places to surprise you inside Ma Cocotte, the restaurant designed by Philippe Starck in the heart of Paris’ enchanting antique and flea markets (aka, Les Puces).
As you bite into your roast chicken, a little hidden love message ‘Ma Poule’ (hen) appears on your plate. Take note as you dive into your bowl of hot chocolate, ‘Mon Amour’! ‘Mon Lapin’ (my rabbit) is displayed on the wall, perhaps replacing the portrait of a loved one? Continue Reading »
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January 7, 2014 by Forest Collins
As Europe’s largest oyster-producing country, France has a long history with the tasty bivalves. Busy brasseries boast display cases with servers who expertly shuck them for seafood platters and passing shoppers.
The year-end provides the perfect excuse to indulge in the festive combination of oysters and champagne. And, while they’ve always been part of the country’s culinary fabric, some of the city’s new chefs have been bringing them back to the forefront of the food scene by infusing a bit more energy and creativity into their service.
With seafood and shellfish playing a starring role in so many of the city’s new and popular restaurants, the team behind Septime finally unveil their own take on the trend with their third venture, Clamato. Continue Reading »
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November 26, 2013 by Erin Dahl
Sundays in Paris are perfect for indulging in a savory home-cooked meal. Though I often make these week-end dinners at home with fresh ingredients purchased at an open-air market that morning, I deviated from this routine on a recent Sunday and am thrilled I did.
After receiving a tip from Erica, the Owner of Haven in Paris, about this bistro tucked away on the East side of Sacre Coeur, I was intrigued.
Practically, this option made a lot of sense: the restaurant was within walking distance of my apartment (I was living on the rue Lepic and for a month and a half), I had two girlfriends from New York coming into town the following week and had yet to make a dinner reservation for us, and Le Grand 8 opens for Sunday dinner. Perfect, I thought. Continue Reading »
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August 22, 2013 by Diane Yoon
Frenchie To Go
It’s 1pm, and your stomach is growling. For many in Paris, that means a stop by the closest boulangerie for a classic sandwich au jambon fromage. But for those of us who want a little more oomph between the slices, two of our favorite resto/bar à vin combos have opened up lunch operations as well.
Frenchie To Go
It’s no secret that we at HiP Paris are big fans of Verjus, Braden Perkins’ and Laura Adrian’s triplex that sits kitty-corner to the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. So it should come as no surprise that when I heard that they would be opening for lunch with a menu of creative sandwiches based on cult classics from the US, I went running.
Verjus Wine Bar
The menu features three sandwiches (as well as an off-menu vegetarian option), all of which are served with a daily choice of classic lunchbox desserts such as snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, or caramel brownies, plus a non-alcoholic drink, for €15. There is also an option to supplement wine or beer for an extra €3, for those of us who moved to France for the option to have wine at lunch. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Restaurant Reviews | 9 Comments »
July 24, 2013 by Milsters Mac
Tucked away on a quiet street in the 11e arrondissement, just across from a lovely little park where hipsters and bobos alike can be seen taking in the elusive summer sunshine, Chez Mamie Green is known for serving up some of Paris’s best organic brunches.
This pocket-sized place has seating for only a dozen people or so, but it’s packed full of charm and good energy. Inside, small pots of flowers sit atop mismatched wooden tables; organic green teas and honey line the counters and shelf spaces; and metallic baskets filled with fresh oranges hang from the ceiling.
The walls are covered with colorful Polaroids featuring the two lovely owners, Stéphanie Assouline and Emilie Goldman, alongside friends and family at home, at parties, on Parisian streets, and on weekends away. Taken together, all of these elements combine to make the space feel more like a cozy room in a friend’s apartment rather than just another restaurant. Continue Reading »
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July 9, 2013 by Diane Yoon
“My food is 100% driven on being delicious.” That’s Chef Haan Palcu-Chang’s philosophy on cooking, and it’s clear from tasting the menu at Le Mary Celeste that this drive is bringing fresh new flavors to Paris that are hitting the spot for those who are looking for something a little different.
Le Mary Celeste, the nautically-themed bar and restaurant brought to you by the same folks as local taco-and-speakeasy favorite Candelaria and Pigalle gem Glass, sports a solid cocktail and beer menu, as one would expect.
What’s unexpected is the ever-changing menu of small plates coming from the kitchen, all of which have a slight Asian influence, often mixing in with what might be considered very traditional European dishes, such as a tartare de veau that’s dressed in a chili-mayonnaise and scattered with sesame seeds and scallions. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Parisian Living, Restaurant Reviews | 1 Comment »
April 16, 2013 by Diane Yoon
Situated on a quiet, sunny corner in the 3rd arrondissement across from the Square du Temple, The Broken Arm is Paris’s newest concept store-cum-café. It’s already attracting a small crowd of creative types — and the inevitable bobo or twelve — to wile away the the afternoon browsing in its clean, bright retail space or sip excellent coffee and tea in its adjacent coffee shop.
The Broken Arm was founded by Guillaume Steinmetz, Anaïs Lafarge, and Romain Joste after four years of running the fashion and lifestyle website De Jeunes Gens Modernes together, and the shop carries the brands that the founders had long admired and featured on their online magazine.
When asked about the idea behind the brands in the shop, Steinmetz says that there is no singular aesthetic that they are going for; the owners developed a clear idea of the designers they wanted to work with during their time running the magazine and decided to feature them in their retail space. The carefully curated collection includes clothing brands such as Patrik Ervell, Carven, Kenzo, and Gyakusou, as well as lifestyle items such as handmade cutting boards, high-end office supplies, and design books.
The founders recognize that the products they carry aren’t necessarily going to appeal to everyone, but that isn’t really the point. “The most important thing is the mood of the place and how [the customers] feel inside the place,” says Steinmetz. The unpretentious décor reflects this idea — the store is laid out in clean Scandinavian lines flanked by bright white walls and untreated wood shelves that put all the attention on the bright colors of the items on display. Continue Reading »
Posted in Parisian Living, Restaurant Reviews | 16 Comments »
April 11, 2013 by Claire Oldman
As I very much enjoy drinking natural wines in London, I thought I would probably enjoy drinking them even more in France. So my thinking went when planning my trip to Paris last month. I can’t remember where I first heard about La Buvette, but it was on my list of natural wine places and also on my list of places that have been opened by ex-staff of Le Chateaubriand or Le Dauphin, where the owner of La Buvette, Camille Fourmont used to work.
That part of rue Saint-Maur is uninhabited enough at night that, as I stopped outside La Buvette to take a photo of the neon lit sign spelling out its name before going inside, my friend E coming up behind me and saying hello made me jump and let out a small shriek.
It’s actually not that far from Parmentier metro, but it seems so when you’re walking up the street in the dark, not knowing where it’s going to be. E, who knows the area well (and shares a surname with the owner Camille Fourmont – but is no relation as far as we could all discern) said she thought Camille was forging interesting new territory by opening there.
Once inside, it was pleasantly refreshing to be in a wine related space that had clearly been put together by a cool girl, rather than a man. Not that it’s girly. It wasn’t dark and there were no ancient dusty bottles gathering mold as décor. Instead, the white tiled walls with shallow wooden shelves held bottles of mostly natural wines, with the prices clearly written on them (add €8 for corkage). There were vintage glass light fixtures, each one slightly different, and a pot containing a fresh arrangement of white flowers and eucalyptus. The whole effect was light, unfussy and modern. Continue Reading »
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April 9, 2013 by Carin Olsson
After macarons, cupcakes, and cream puffs, the classic eclair is now enjoying a serious revival in Paris. Here to test the trend, Carin gathered a few knowledgeable sweet freaks to test the goods from Paris’ most notable new eclair shops, l’Eclair de Genie and l’Atelier de l’Eclair. -Geneviève
Éclairs from L’Éclair de Génie
If you ask people about pastries that remind them of Paris, one that first comes to mind is the classic éclair. A pastry made with pâte à choux, a fluffy cream filling and mouth-watering icing on top — mmmm!
Éclairs from L’Éclair de Génie
Many of us forgot about this delicious little pastry when adorable macarons and elaborate American cupcakes took the Parisian dessert spotlight over the past couple of years. Thanks to inventive pastry chefs (and probably a general fatigue with everything bite-size), two new Parisian pastry shops, L’Eclair de Genie and L’Atelier de l’Eclair, have put the éclair back on the dessert tray.
I have to admit: I haven’t always been a huge fan of the éclair myself. It wasn’t until I stepped inside the newly opened L’Éclair de Génie in the Marais, that I realized I might need to revise my position: seeing miniature éclairs all lined up in different colors and variations made my heart skip a beat. After my first bite of a noisette/praliné éclair, I was sold. I’m now an unabashed éclair convert (under the right circumstances, of course). So when the HiP Paris blog asked me to spend an afternoon exploring new variations on this classic pastry, I jumped at the chance! Continue Reading »
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April 4, 2013 by Paige Bradley Frost
As my husband and I prepared to leave Paris a decade ago, we thought long and hard about where to go for our “au revoir” meal. After three years of steady devotion to classic French food, we decided instead on Hiramatsu, then located on the Ile St-Louis and newly anointed with a Michelin star. Our two-hour lunch included course after aromatic course of Hiramatsu’s inventive and refined Franco-Japanese creations. It was a meal neither of us will ever forget.
I was reminded of that lunch recently at Le Concert de Cuisine, chef Naoto Masumoto’s sleek, bento box of a restaurant tucked away in the 15ème. Unlike Hiroyuki Hiramatsu — whose lofty sights were clearly set on les etoiles — Masumoto seems to have achieved his highest aspirations simply in the studious and precise preparation of his dishes.
Acclaim seems almost beside the point for the chef who cut his teeth at (the much much pricier) Benkay. A steady and devout clientele (composed largely of Japanese business men and suit-clad ministry types) fills the restaurant daily in an unfussy space that says eating here is serious business. Continue Reading »
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