Heidi Ellison
Mori Venice Bar
Elegant Comfort Food in a Soothing Atmosphere
The Mori Venice Bar is the kind of place you seek out when you want to feel cosseted while enjoying a long, relaxed and relaxing meal in a calm atmosphere. The service, although sometimes a bit slower than warranted by … Read More
Jean Prouvé in Nancy
Building for Better Days Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) proved his talent as an innovative designer and builder over and over again during his long career, but he doesn’t seem to have received the respect and recognition he deserved from the French … Read More
Aux Verres de Contact
Human Contact The Missing Element
Having had my plan to lunch at Aux Verres de Contact thwarted last week by a power cut that closed the restaurant, I was eager to try it, so I called the next day to make a reservation. I was … Read More
C’Etaient des Enfants
Search and Deportation: The Children Speak
Children absorb and reflect the world of their elders. At Drancy, the internment camp in France from which over 67,000 Jews, 6,000 of them children, were deported to the Nazi extermination camps, “ordinary life sometimes took over,” said Odette Dattroff-Baticle, … Read More
Les Canailles
No-Frills Comfort South of Pigalle
The food and decor are simple and pleasing. The ninth arrondissement is turning into a hotbed of good little neighborhood restaurants. We have already reviewed a number of them here (including Le Pantruche, Les Saisons, L’Office and Le Garde Temps), … Read More
Le Schmuck
A Tarnished Jewel in the Sixth Arrondissement
Okay, let’s get it out of the way immediately. Most Americans are familiar with the Yiddish meaning of “schmuck,” but in German, it means “jewelry” or “decoration,” so no need to giggle or gasp when you hear that I went … Read More
Micheline Day
Jazz Diva of the Square: Still Swinging After All These Years
“I’m in there,” said the lady in black with the bright red lipstick sitting next to me on the bench in the Square du Temple in Paris’s third arrondissement. She was pointing at the computer on my lap. The lady was Micheline Capuano Blasco, better known by her stage name, Micheline Day. Over the course of many afternoons on the bench near the pond in the little park, she revealed random morsels of her life story to me.
Pierrot & American Bistrot
Beef Two Ways: French and American
Vegetarians, avert your eyes now. This review is about restaurants where meat meets carnivore, to the latter’s great delight… While Pierrot and the American Bistrot vary greatly in style, the substance is the same: their basic stock in trade is … Read More
Café Cartouche
Mixed Results for Cartouche Offshoot
When I heard that Rodolphe Pacquin, the owner-chef of the Repaire de Cartouche, a restaurant former Paris Update reviewer Richard Hesse and I loved when we went there in 2008, had opened a lower-priced (prices being the only sticking point … Read More
Les Saisons
Successful Rebirth of An Old Favorite
First there was Velly, a neighborhood bistro in Paris’s ninth arrondissement that was good enough to attract gourmets from all over the city. When Velly’s well-liked owner sold, it became Villa Victoria, which, since the chef stayed on, continued to … Read More