Yellow Cab Cuisine Cheerful dining with often sublime results. February 2005; updated Oct. 15, 2008 THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED The cheerful Taxi Jaune, located in the wholesale leather-goods section of the Marais (where tourists often fear to tred), has … Read More
Renaissance Fashions “The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist.” © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden This mega-exhibition at the Louvre might better have been called Mantegna & Co., since the works by the Italian master Andrea … Read More
Storms of Color “La Mise au Tombeau” (1915). © Nolde Stiftung-Seebüll This exhibition, which promises to be one of the fall season’s blockbusters, will be a delightful eye opener for anyone who is not familiar with the work of Emil … Read More
The Sweet Scent of Stardom All the elements of success: gray-beige decor, great food sources, a talented chef and well-schooled staff. It’s getting to be a bit much, all this gray-beige decor. Every aspirational restaurant startup has it. Have those … Read More
Through a Stained Glass Darkly “Bénigne” (1939). © ADAGP Paris 2008 Having never understood the appeal of the paintings of Georges Rouault, whose works can be immediately recognized by the heavy black outlines around the figures in them, I was … Read More
Regional Byways Seasonal berries with a melon-ribbon bow. I take real pleasure in seeing a new restaurant open and take off seemingly effortlessly. A la Chataigne opened earlier this year, but when I was there very recently, it felt as … Read More
Magical Mystery Meal The cooks fashion their mystery menus from unlikely looking ingredients. There’s an almost Biblical simplicity about the first moves in a meal at Bigarrade. One of the two waiters approaches with a rectangular piece of slate … Read More
Simon Says: Don’t Miss It The decor is minimal, the food memorable. Japanese food remains largely terra incognita for me, and I have more than a sneaking suspicion that like other “ethnic” cuisines, Japanese food is dumbed down here for … Read More
In Love with La Rochelle Seaside dining is costly at Coutanceau. Over the summer vacation, I fell in love with La Rochelle. Like an aging professor who falls for a student, I am besotted. It’s a delightful town, with its … Read More
Al Fresco Central The pleasant, restaurant-lined, car-free Place du Marché Saint Honoré. In this clement weather, the quest goes on for restaurants offering car-free al fresco dining. With terraces now being the only place where patrons can smoke, however, this … Read More
