CHIC EATS IN PARIS
Chic Eats In Paris - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Chic Eats In Paris | |||||
| By: Ben Crawford, Issue 42 – Autumn 2010 | |||||
| (Chic Restaurants in Paris) | |||||
| WHAT’S IN AND WHAT’S OUT IN PARIS DINING CHANGES AS FAST AS THE MODELS ON THE CITY’S CATWALKS. BEN CRAWFORD COMPILED A LIST OF THE CURRENT CROP OF CHIC FAVOURITES. | |||||
| There are countless occasions and attractions that draw one to Paris – the fashion collections, the art and antiques fairs, the parties and balls, the shopping, the museums, the Christmas lights, the simple pleasures of walking through the city streets…. But whatever draws you to Paris, there is always another agenda – food. Paris offers innumerable fabulous options – traditional or avant garde, chic or rustic, gourmet or branché. At some point each day the question inevitably arises: what are the best places to eat? If you prefer establishments favored by the chic – by socialites and celebrities, the beautiful, the fashionable, the cultured and the wealthy - you probably want to avoid the famous touristique places like Le Fouquet’s, Le Tour d’Argent and Mediteranée. However some are unavoidable – Chez Maxim hosts good events these days after midnight, and you still can’t beat the club sandwiches at Les Deux Magots, the people watching at the Ritz, and the partying at 404 and its bar, Andy Wahloo. The latest place, La Gazzetta, receives rave reviews, but the single menu with no options makes it tough going for friends with allergies and aversions. For the most enduring chic scene in Paris, top of the list is Le Grand Véfour. This luxurious purveyor of the finest French classic gourmet food has been situated at the back of the sublime Palais Royale for over two hundred years, and each seat in the restaurant is inscribed with the name of a famous regular –Jean-Paul Sartre, Cocteau, Bonaparte and Josephine, etc. If you can’t get in or simply can’t face a cornucopia of foie gras, caviar, lobster, frogs’ legs, pigeon, chocolate truffles, pungent cheeses and fine wines and cognacs, the nearby Restaurant du Palais Royale offers slightly lighter meals. Its outdoor seating in the summer is adjacent to the new sculpture garden by Daniel Buren, comprising rectangular prisms jutting in the air, reminiscent of a giant Scandinavian-designed chess set. Alternatively, you can wander down to the Louvre and sit in the Café Marly, with its unique view of IM Pei’s glass pyramid and international light cuisine from spring rolls to pasta. Marly’s sister restaurant, Georges, is perched on top of the Pompidou Centre, and offers spectacular views of the city. To get there, it’s best to catch the elevator from the Place rather than entering the museum itself. You will find that the interiors, the food, even the menus are daring, and it lives up to its reputation for having the most beautiful waitresses in Paris. Both restaurants are owned by the Costes brothers whose Hotel Costes is also a regular setting for the chic scene. Just as the hotel is now more famous for its music CDs than its rooms, its restaurant is more for drinking and the see-and-be-seen than for eating. Another Costes restaurant worth checking out is L’Avenue. Situated in the heart of the high fashion industry, just up the road from the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy corporate offices, it caters to both industry insiders and serious shoppers – all perfectly dressed, or course. Designer luggage fans may also appreciate the Philippe Starck-designed Kong, which occupies the top two floors of the Kenzo building by the river. The glassed-in top floor gives you a direct view into the workshops of the Louis Vuitton headquarters next door. Another museum restaurant that has been popular of late is Le Saut du Loup at the Musée des arts decoratifs – the Parisian museum with the best displays of fashion and interior design. The restaurant serves drinks as late as 2am and on a fine day is open onto the Tuileries gardens. The food is French, but on the fruity and artistic side, with such dishes as Foie gras with ginger and passion fruit and “Fillet of beef with lettuce sauce, polenta cubism and parmesan figures.” More experimental but equally delicious dining can be found at Music Hall, which offers such dishes as “breast of duck roasted in cocoa, mashed caramelized turnips and tagliateli with chocolate.” Music Hall belongs to that new school of restaurants that have a nightclub feel – with the most extreme example being Geisha House in LA, where you have to shout across the table to be heard over the music, and it’s so dark you run the risk of not recognizing some of the celebs streaming through to the upstairs bar. Music Hall screens Fashion TV on flatscreens on every wall – probably a smart move as the women can ogle the clothes while men do the same with the models. The entertainment also sets the scene for the crowd. By about 11pm every table is packed and the patrons are standing ten-deep at the bar. Less crowded, but under the same rubric of “eateries that have learned from nightclubs” is Fidelité - a restaurant with the feel of a cool brasserie – dark, bohemian, buzzing after midnight towards the end of the week. It’s in an unfashionable part of town, but its proximity to the Gare du Nord means you can make it your first stop in the evening after you arrive on the Eurostar from London or the RER train from the airport. If your tastes and bank balance draw you towards the ultimate in fine dining, the best ingredients of every kind, encyclopedic wine lists, and immaculate service with staff far outnumbering guests, there are more options in Paris than almost any other city on earth. Among these gastronomic palaces, the in crowd tend to gravitate to L’Arpège, Alain Passard’s temple to the perfectly grown and prepared vegetable, Alain Ducasse’s eponymous dining room at the Plaza Athenée Hotel (where Carrie Bradshaw stayed in the final episodes of Sex and the City), Jean-Pierre Vigato’s Apicius, which resides in a building owned by film director Luc Besson, a couple of blocks from the Champs Elysees, Pierre Gagnaire’ deluxe flavour laboratory nearby, or the classic, Taillevant. The above restaurants are as expensive as any in the world. But similar superlative dining can be obtained for under $150 a head at L’Atélier de Joël Robuchon. There are some sacrifices you need to make, though. It is based conceptually on Japanese sushi bars, which means it takes no reservations, you sit at a communal counter, and it’s essentially impossible for a party of more than two or three people to be seated together. So go as a couple at 6.30 in the evening and you should get a table for 8 or 9pm. Order the Spaghettis aux truffes blanches. Then of course there are the restaurants that are chic precisely because they are totally authentic and food-centric, and do not style themselves to appeal to the fashionable set. Ironically, perhaps the best known of these is A l’ami Louis, which since it was “discovered” by the likes of Bill Clinton, Sharon Stone, Woody Allen and Robin Williams – now serves American-sized portions of (admittedly delicious) traditional French food at equally inflated prices. A “better address” for experiencing magnificent rustic cuisine in a humble setting, surrounded by true bon vivants, is Chez l’ami Jean, a bistro that offers mind-blowing refinements on rustic Basque recipes, such as oxtail lasagna, game terrine, Adour salmon, and plenty of Bayonne ham. At the other extreme of the Parisian chic is Market. Part of the empire of master-chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, it enjoys an elegant décor to match its Avenue Matignon location, and a menu as far from regional cuisine as one could imagine. The meal starts with a so-called “Black Plate” selection of Asian-inflected seafood dishes, and pizzas with such toppings as sashimi and truffle. Main courses are flavoured with Japanese, Thai and North African flavours, as well as Jean-Georges’ own creations. Wherever you choose to eat from among the venues mentioned here, do make sure to book well in advance, especially towards the end of the week. And if you want to secure a good table, you can always try booking in the name of a celebrity, although this only really works if the celebrity actually joins you for the meal. | |||||
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