Like all tragic figures, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) fell from on high. He had it all, except perhaps beauty, but he made up for that with his brilliance, charm and wit, which were rewarded with fame and fortune. It all came … Read More
I’ve been waiting a long time for Sicilian chef Fabrizio Ferrara, who made his name in Paris with the minuscule Caffè dei Cioppi, to open the new restaurant he promised when he launched the deli and lunch spot La Dispensa in the 10th arrondissement last year. Ça y est. I ate at the new Osteria Ferrara the other night and was overjoyed on all counts.
As always, the September edition of Maison & Objet, the trade-only home show held in Paris twice a year, offered a peek at the latest trends and innovations. The fair is organized into three main sections – Maison, Objet and … Read More
At first glance, the newly rebranded Loiseau Rive Gauche (formerly Tante Marguerite) seems irredeemably stodgy and old-fashioned, decorated with orange-accented gray banquettes and colonial-style wood paneling, with insipid, unnecessary music playing at low volume in the background.
There is something especially moving about seeing clothing once worn by an admired historical figure that goes beyond the impression given by a visit to the person’s former home or grave, I suppose because clothing is so personal and often bears … Read More
Seeing the Beat Generation enshrined in a museum like the Centre Pompidou can give pause to one old enough to have started reading books by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs and such fellow travelers as Lawrence Ferlinghetti … Read More
In these days of YouTube kittens and DreamWorks penguins, contemporary representations of animals often skew cute or decorative. The eye-catching poster seen all over Paris hyping the Fondation Cartier’s new exhibition, “The Great Animal Orchestra,” seemed to be a case in … Read More
A highlight of my recent trip to Paris was tagging along with Heidi as she reviewed restaurants for Paris Update. Doing so involved adapting to the unscientific Laws of Culinary Fluctuation.
Three young food-loving entrepreneurs recently opened a new kind of restaurant in Paris as a springboard for talented new chefs. Its name, Fulgurances, is a reference to lightning: they hope to strike their customers with a lightning bolt of joy every time they encounter a new chef.
My friend Connie felt like she was being ambushed by offal when she glanced at the menu at L’Embuscade, a new restaurant that has replaced a neighborhood institution, the anarchist restaurant Le Maldoror, of which no traces remain – nary a political tract hangs on walls that were once papered with them.
