Heidi Ellison
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
AMERICAN BISTROT IS NOW CLOSED, BUT PIERROT IS STILL GOING STRONG. 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, … 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
THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED 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 … Read More
2 Days in New York
Neurotic France Meets Neurotic New York
I found Julie Delpy’s 2007 film 2 Days in Paris, about a Frenchwoman who brings her neurotic New York boyfriend to meet her neurotic family in Paris, to be extremely funny and became an instant fan of this French female … Read More
Green Paris Walks
Who knew that Paris’s 13th arrondissement, bristling with towering apartment buildings, was also home not only to the city’s largest Chinatown but also many discrete green spaces and a terribly charming little triangular enclave of small houses (originally built for … Read More
Sakebar
Japan Meets France Over a Glass of Sake
THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED Note: Chef Victor Magsaysay has moved to the restaurant Ito, but his former assistant carries on in the same vein at Sakebar. Dec. 4, 2013 Paris’s hottest new restaurant (according to some of my informants) … Read More
Le Bistro des Gastronomes & Les Trois Seaux
A Tale of Two Bistros
THE BISTRO DES GASTRONOMES IS STILL OPEN, BUT LES TROIS SEAUX IS NOW CLOSED Given comparable levels of food quality and cooking skill and slightly off-the-beaten-track locations, what makes one bistro a popular success while another has a feeling of … Read More