Heidi Ellison
Rosemary
French Gastropub Can’t Beat the British
Believe it or not, I have eaten at three different restaurants at this address in as many years. Normally that would seem to indicate a curse on the space, but the other evening Rosemary had quite a good crowd, in spite of the fact that it serves “English” food, commonly reviled by the French.
Cinéma Le Méliès. Montreuil
The People’s Cinema This could only happen in a suburb of Paris with a Communist mayor (former mayor Jean-Pierre Brard): In need of more cinema screens for local residents, the city of Montreuil effectively shut out two large film distributors … Read More
What’s New in Paris: NATA
Paris Update What’s New in Paris SPIRITUAL & PHYSICAL SUSTENANCE Paris has plenty of yoga centers, but few in the 20th arrondissement, and even fewer with their own organic vegetarian cooking school and regular meditation sessions in a peaceful studio … Read More
Distrito Francés, Rococo, Osè
Lunching in the Northern Faubourgs The homey setting upstairs at Distrito Francés. One day in August I went to the Rue du Faubourg Saint Martin to try a new Mexican restaurant, Distrito Francés, and was delighted to discover that a … Read More
Le Siècle de François Ier
The Rebranding of a Warrior King
Five centuries after the beginning of his reign (1515-47), François I is remembered as an enlightened monarch, a man of letters and patron of the arts who imported great Renaissance arts and artists, among them Leonardo da Vinci, to France … Read More
975
Bistronomy Reaches Outer Limits (of Paris)
It’s a sure sign of approaching gentrification when a restaurant like 975 opens in one of Paris’s quartiers populaires, in this case the area around Métro Guy Moquet in northwestern Paris, not far from the Périphérique.
A Mère
A New Lab for Creative Cooking
For once, I beat the quick-off-the-mark food bloggers to a new Paris restaurant: A Mère. And what a find it is! While it won’t win any awards for decor, it ticks all the other boxes for a favorite restaurant: reasonable prices; high-quality, seasonal ingredients; great creativity; and attention to detail.
Au Palais de l’Himalaya
Spicy Night on the Butte Montmartre
The search for good Indian restaurants in Paris goes on. This week I tried Au Palais de l’Himalaya on the recommendation of a friend. A great advantage of this Montmartre restaurant during the hot Paris summer is its terrace on a quiet, narrow street only a block away from Rue Steinkerque, where endless torrents of tourists stream up and down the hill as they head to or leave the Sacré Cœur.
Beaurepaire Revisited
Basquing on the Terrace of a Summer Evening
Summery weather and an evening reading at Shakespeare & Co (Zadie Smith and Nick Laird), could lead to only one conclusion: dinner at one of Paris’s top terraces, the nearby Beaurepaire. A meal there was also an occasion to check on the evolution of a restaurant first reviewed here in 2012.
La Dispensa
Little Italy Moves to the 10th
Paris has lost a wonderful little Italian restaurant, Caffè dei Cioppi, but has gained La Dispensa. Sicilian chef Fabrizio Ferrara has closed his trattoria in an alleyway of the 12th arrondissement and opened a lunch spot/Italian deli on an equally obscure side street in the 10th, where I treated myself to lunch the other day.