May 8, 2012 by Tory Hoen
Last spring, every food-following Parisian had their sights set on one restaurant: Rino. After it opened in February 2010, chef Giovanni Passerini’s cozy, modern bistro quickly became the place for innovative, market-driven fare at reasonable prices. At the time, nearly every review was favorable (if not positively glowing); a year later, we stopped in again, for lunch this time, to see whether Rino has lived up to the hype.
The restaurant is tucked away on a fairly unsexy street in the 11th, and offers clean and unfussy décor, suggesting that here, the focus has always been on the food. As soon as we entered, we noticed a team of busy line chefs, chopping and arranging dishes in a small open kitchen.
In the tradition of Le Chateaubriand, Le Chapeau Melon, and Les Papilles, Rino offers a set menu (with little-to-no choice) that changes daily based on available ingredients and the whims of the chef. Luckily, Passerini’s impressive training (he previously worked at Arpège, Le Chateaubriand, and La Gazzetta)and innovative instincts mean that culinary missteps are rare—he has an innate sense for how to make seasonal produce shine in dishes that draw on tradition but play up surprises.
Continue Reading »
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April 26, 2012 by Tory Hoen
Fresh off the heels of their successes in Paris, London and now New York, the Experimental Cocktail Crew makes its culinary debut in Paris (where else?) with the Beef Club. If you stop by, let us know what you think in the comments! -Geneviève
Just a few steps from one of Paris’s least charming spots (Les Halles) has suddenly appeared one of its most charming. Le Ballroom du Beef Club, the month-old clandestine cocktail den from the team behind the popular hideaways Experimental Cocktail Club, Curio Parlor and Prescription Cocktail Club, leaves no doubt that Paris has arrived as a serious mixology destination. In the space of just a few years, the scene here has evolved from an experimental “cult” to a full-blown cocktail culture—largely thanks to Olivier Bon, Pierre-Charles Cros, and Romée de Goriainoff, the handsome young triumvirate behind the quickly expanding Experimental empire (they have a spot in London and will open their first New York outpost later this month).
This time around, the team has upped the ante. Upstairs, The Beef Club is a stylish steak house (we can’t wait to settle into one of those mid-century modern chairs for a night of carnivorous hedonism), and downstairs, the cavernous Ballroom du Beef Club offers a sensationally sexy setting where you can slip in for an after-work drink or linger into the wee hours of the night.
By 9pm on a Wednesday, multiple groups had already discreetly tucked themselves into the bar’s various dark nooks, and at around 10pm each night, the bar’s second lounge space opens to accommodate the larger late-night crowd. Continue Reading »
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February 2, 2012 by Forest Collins
Paris is one of the best cities in the world for exceptional food and wine combinations. In a refreshing change of pace, restaurant le Clarisse offers their tasting menus paired with sake in addition to the standard wine route. Although France’s gastronomic identity is undeniably tied to wine, who doesn’t like to opt for something original from time to time?
Tucked away in the 7th on a street busy with bar and restaurant options, le Clarisse is an elegant stop offering French-inspired fare prepared with precision and delicacy by a Japanese chef. While the restaurant itself isn’t new, the change in chefs a little over a year ago makes it well worth renewed consideration. Recently I was invited to taste test the sake-pairing menu and see what kind of revamp resulted from their association with Chef Sadaki Kajiwara.
The regularly changing menu is just the right size for my taste: four starters and five mains to choose from, each of which comes with a recommended wine or sake pairing and can be ordered a la carte or as part of a prix fixe menu. Restaurant director, wine connoisseur and in house sake expert, Jean-Philippe Pluvinet, is on hand to personally walk guests through the beverage pairings. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Restaurant Reviews | 8 Comments »
January 24, 2012 by Tory Hoen
A Paris chalkboard menu – appearances can be deceiving! (Daxis)
Years into my love affair with Paris, I’m still making ridiculous rookie mistakes. I suppose it’s time to accept that France will always have the upper hand, but it still stings.
My most recent humiliation is horse-related. Or at least, I thought it was.
Please note that I was a horse-obsessed child, so equine-related topics are particularly touchy for me. As a child, I would sometimes dress in riding garb for no reason at all. And while I was waiting for my parents to break down and buy me a real horse (never happened), I would drag garbage cans into the backyard and ride them, periodically switching from one member of the “herd” to the next. On any given afternoon, people in the house could gaze out and see me whipping a particularly stubborn garbage can with my riding crop.
So when I first moved to Paris and started noticing “steak à cheval” on menus around town, I was wary. I knew there was a historical precedent of eating horse meat in France, but it seemed quite inhumane in this day and age. Nonetheless, I assumed it was some kind of trendy gastronomic revival, and who was I to question the local gourmands? So I kept my mouth shut and simply avoided the dreaded horse steak when confronted with it.
Recently, I was visiting my boyfriend’s family in Brazil. One night, we sat down to dinner and I was presented with a traditional dish called bife a cavalo (in Portuguese), which translates to “horse-riding steak” or “steak à la horse.”
“Horse?” I asked, panic rapidly setting in.
“No, it’s like steak à cheval in France,” G explained.
“Sooo….. horse?” I wondered again.
It was at this point that I realized I’d been operating under a serious misapprehension, and it took the collision of three cultures for the truth to surface. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Parisian Living | 11 Comments »
August 8, 2011 by Kim Laidlaw Adrey
Pétrelle is a small French restaurant tucked away in a quiet corner of the 9th arrondissement. It’s not new – indeed it’s been around for 18 years – and it’s not easy to stumble upon, yet it has enjoyed continued success among discerning locals and tourists alike for almost two decades. Erica Berman from Haven in Paris, Forest Collins (52 Martinis), Kasia Dietz (Love in the City of Lights ) and I (I Heart Paris ) decided to go and check it out to find out just why just why this unassuming but charming restaurant is such a perennial success.
So, first thing’s first. What did we think of the food?
Erica: The meal was tasty, fresh, honest and uncomplicated with pleasing portions and lovely artistic touches. It felt like a French ‘potager’ had come to my plate since I, unfortunately, could not go to it. The vegetables were perfectly cooked, the fish tender and juicy, and the desserts rich and sinful.
Kasia: Beginning with a courgette and girolle appetizer, the meal was very ‘fresh from the farm’ in flavor and artistic in composition – Basquiat, if I had to pick an artist. My Saint-Pierrefillet was a small but flavorsome portion complemented with a mélange of vegetables and herbs – this dish more a Kandinsky. The rich chocolate mousse left little room for the complimentary meringues eyeing us all evening. Hard to resist!
Forest: Well-prepared fish and proteins were dressed up with pretty veggies and garnishes like fancy hats on racing day. Cheese was served the way it should be: in big chunks on a plate allowing guests to cut off their own portions.
Kim: A very French menu with classics such as ris de veau, beef tournedos and a seasonal fish of the day featured on the hand-written menu. The focus is on simplicity and letting the quality of each ingredient shine through. I chose the fish of the day – a fillet of John Dory, cooked to perfection and served with a selection of seasonal vegetables – followed by a pudding of raspberries in a fluffy creamy mouse and with a crunchy mille-feuille style biscuit. Continue Reading »
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July 6, 2011 by Paige Bradley Frost
One of the things I love most about life in Paris is the leisurely bistro dejeuner – that delicious two-hour affair complete with three courses and wine, bien sur.
When I moved back to Paris this spring, I couldn’t wait to try some of the new bistros that had opened in the years I’d been away. I’d heard plenty about the haute cuisine-meets-neighborhood resto concept and was anxious to indulge.
My search led me to l’Ourcine – an out of the way spot near les Gobelins – for the decadent lunch I’d been dreaming about.
With its unpretentious vibe, market-inspired menu and excellent rapport qualité-prix, l’Ourcine has earned a devoted foodie following. For 34 euro (26 for mid-week lunch formule) the three-course menu offers creative riffs on classics like onglet de veau, pigeon roti au foie gras, “open” ravioli in a creamy morel mushroom sauce and famously, les quenelles au chocolat.
But no matter what you order from chef Sylvain Daniere’s ever-changing chalkboard menu, the locals swear: it’s all good. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Restaurant Reviews | 7 Comments »
June 20, 2011 by Erica Berman
Dining in a restaurant in France is pretty much the same as in the US, or is it? Looks can be deceiving. In fact, eating out in France is quite different from the typical North American restaurant experience.
I often relive with humor a French family vacation filled with my family showing up for dinner at 7 pm famished (an ungodly late hour for a family used to eating at 5 pm) to find restaurants not yet open or the employees dining before their shift. I also remember often being the last to leave even though we were the first to arrive as we could not figure out how to get the check and pay (despite putting on coats, stacking plates and brandishing credit cards).
In France, as opposed to the US, you can’t just show up to a restaurant at any hour of the day or night expecting to be served. Meals occur at particular times; outside those given hours, you will be loathe to find anything except unappealing brasseries, shriveled sandwiches, and fast food. To spare you the hassle of some of my early experiences, here are a few tips on French restaurant etiquette:
Hours – French restaurants mostly follow the following schedule:
- Breakfast is not often eaten out in France (a quick coffee and croissant at the local café will do)
- Brunch is becoming more popular in Paris. Normal brunch hours are 11am-3pm.
- Lunch is 12-2pm with most Frenchies showing up at 1 (some restaurants serve till 3).
- Dinner is 8-10 pm. Some restaurants open at 7:30 and some serve until 11 pm or later. Continue Reading »
Posted in Parisian Living | 32 Comments »
February 9, 2010 by Maggie Battista
Erica Berman
My first week in Paris has been hard. I don’t know the language and my French classes aren’t making me a master anytime soon. I don’t know the city at all, and the Metro system has felt nothing like the subway systems of New York or Boston, probably due to all those darn French words I just don’t understand. My neighborhood in the 18th is fine and my apartment is sweet, but they just don’t feel like home.
(I know, I know. I’m super lucky to be spending three glorious months in the City of Light, but sympathize with me for a few more paragraphs, okay?)
Yesterday, I wanted to pack it in, give in to this beautiful but totally foreign city. I was about to shut myself away in my little apartment and venture out only when I had to finally get to French ecole (school) on Monday morning. Working against the little voice inside my tête (head), I forced myself out into the city. And with sore feet from all these vicious hills and rough pavement, I found myself completely lost.
Then, my phone rang. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Restaurant Reviews | 9 Comments »
August 7, 2009 by Erica Berman
After reading David Lebovitz’s super upbeat post and Geneviève’s gently scathing article about the Cul de Poule restaurant, I was unsure whether I would find a trendy hipster resto with snooty servers and less than average food, or a stylish bistro for those in the know. When my friend, food critic and chef Rosa Jackson invited me to join her to test it out for the Time Out restaurant guide, I was pleased to accept and eager to find out what it was all about.
Posted in Food, Restaurant Reviews, Travel | 3 Comments »
June 21, 2009 by Tory Hoen
All photos courtesy of chocolateandzucchini.com
“I’m not a local food celebrity,” Clotilde Dusoulier assures me, as she sips her Perrier on a café terrace in Montmartre. And she’s right; she’s not a local food celebrity. She’s an international food sensation, thanks to her blog, Chocolate and Zucchini, which has captivated foodies around the world. While the majority of her readers are North American, Clotilde is thrilled by the amount of international attention received by her blog, which she updates twice a week. “That’s what’s absolutely magical about the internet and blogs,” marvels Clotilde. “You can draw people so close when they’re so far apart in the real world.” Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Parisian Living | 3 Comments »
