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bellastraniera
a.k.a. Marcy Swingle - obsessed with food and fashion.View my photography website.
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Paris Restaurants and Bars
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Category Archives: travel
Aux Deux Amis
The word “hipster” may be permanently attached to the word “Williamsburg” in New York, but the hipster is an international phenomenon. At Aux Deux Amis in Oberkampf, a trendy neighborhood in Paris, guys with chunky framed glasses, mustaches and vintage plaid overcoats and their female hipster counterparts crowd around the bar, waiting for a table.
Fortunately, Parisian hipsters’ reference point seems to Serge Gainsbourg’s late ’60s/early ’70s Paris, not Valley Girl‘s 1983. The owners of this new bistro have followed suit, keeping the ’70s decor of the café that used to exist here – neon lights, Formica wood paneling à la Welcome to the Johnsons, mirrors, a beige-ish color to the walls. It’s a way of dining as one’s parents would have, but with irony. (more…)
L’Avenue
On the corner of chic and expensive sits L’Avenue, a stone’s throw from the Plaza Athenée. During Paris fashion week, this tony restaurant has some of the best people watching in the world. A table outside on a sunny afternoon comes with a view: well dressed women walking by Dior, Chanel and Chloe, stopping in for lunch, often with kisses all around as they greet friends at neighboring tables. (more…)
Posted in food, travel
Tagged fashion hangouts, Paris, Paris restaurants, restaurants
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La Maison Mère
When you think Parisian food, do you think filet mignon or pastrami? Tarte au chocolat or cheesecake? If the answer is the former, it’s time to revisit Paris, because the latest dining trend sweeping the city is cuisine new yorkais.
Traveling across the Atlantic to patronize ever-encroaching American chains like Starbucks is not recommended, but new Parisian places like Marcel and La Maison Mère are worth a visit to experience the French take on delicatessen classics. Basically imagine a Cordon Bleu student interning at Katz’s, and you’ve got the picture. (more…)
Posted in food, travel
Tagged American food, burgers, Paris, Paris restaurants, restaurants
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Puerto Rico Eats: The Luquillo Kiosks
Not far from the El Junque rainforest in Puerto Rico is a mecca of sorts for Puerto Rican street food. On the northeast coast, sun worshippers are drawn to the town of Luquillo and nearby Playa Fortuna for the long stretches of a beautiful public beaches. The only thing missing was a place to feed everyone, and so the kiosks of Luquillo sprang up, forming a ramshackle assortment of sheet metal and concrete structures between highway and beach. Flip flops, drinks in lopped off coconuts, and dozens of fried snacks are all for sale in mom-and-pop stands, some of which have been passed down through the generations.
Navigating the bonanza of treats from the 50-plus stands near the beach can be daunting, but it’s also hard to go wrong. Most of the proprietors speak English as well as Spanish and can tell you what’s inside the various fried shapes under the glass. Choose your kiosk by the number of locals frequenting one or the other and by the house specialty, usually listed prominently on the menu or the wall. Or you could do what we did last weekend, and just go from kiosk to kiosk and eat whatever looks good. (more…)
Aux Fins Gourmets, Paris
As entertaining as it is to visit new, trendy restaurants in Paris, it would be criminal to spend a week there and not eat at least one meal in a classic bistro. Thus, we descended upon the 51-year-old Aux Fins Gourmets in the Seventh one night, drawn by the restaurant’s signature dish, duck confit.
Like most traditional French bistros, Aux Fins Gourmets is brightly lit and convivial. A mostly local crowd filled the place at around 9pm, the standard dinner hour here. There are not a lot of surprises at this neighborhood place, but that’s exactly the point. It was an oasis of calm on a busy Saturday night on the Left Bank. (more…)
La Société, Paris
Towards the end of our meal at this newish Parisian restaurant across from the church of Saint Germain, flashbulbs started popping nearby. Usually this is an indication that tourists are taking photos of themselves in the restaurant, but not here. The tables of German editors, Swedes, and a handful of French fashion types wouldn’t dare. It was the paparazzi, who had been waiting outside for hours to catch models arriving and leaving the restaurant, ushered into the night by black SUVs.
I have no idea how we got a table here. Perhaps it helps to show up the night before, reasonably well-dressed and speaking French, and ask for a reservation in person, as we did. But on a quiet Sunday night, when most of Paris was shuttered, La Société was the place to be. (more…)
The New “It” Food in Paris? Le Cheeseburger
Food fads look even stranger when viewed through the eyes of a foreigner. Like the as-yet-unexplained gin and tonic craze last year in Barcelona (one bar’s sign read: “17 Different Kinds of Gin & Tonic!”), the cheeseburger fad is taking Paris by storm. Though it has gotten the most press because of Ralph Lauren’s new gourmet cheeseburger restaurant on Boulevard Saint-Germain, “Le Ralph’s,” the cheeseburger craze started with young, hip kids in Paris before a big name designer usurped it.
We decided not go to “Le Ralph’s” after one look at the fancy brass-framed menu outside. Le Cheeseburger: 27€. Le Hot dog: 15€. Le Club sandwich (a runner-up for most faddish American food in Paris): 20€. If I’m going to spend more than $30 for a beef dish in Paris, it had better be a steak. (more…)
Coinstot Vino
On the same pedestrian walkway is the relatively undiscovered Coinstot Vino, another bar au vins with small plates. This one has a much bigger selection of tapas, most priced under 10€. A creamy, delicious burrata (6€) arrived with a salad sprinkled with pickled red pepper, giving just the right contrast to the dish.
Racines
Dining options in Paris used to be quite rigid: a restaurant, a bistro, a brasserie or a cafe, and not much else in between. But the small plates phenomenon that hit other cities across Europe and the U.S. is also taking root here, and in France, it’s by way of the Basque region.
Racines and Coinstat Vino are two of several new bars au vins with a focus on food. Hidden away on Passeg aux Panoramas, a pedestrian walkway in the Second Arrondissment, Racines offers haute country food like a filet mignon of pork. (more…)
The Net Result, Martha’s Vineyard
Still reeling from the $23 price tag of a pint of clams at the Bite, we approached seafood shack the Net Result in Vineyard Haven, Martha’s Vineyard with caution. This combination take-out joint and fish market gets their catch daily from Larsen’s in Menemsha, so they could charge a lot for the fresh quality. But we were pleasantly surprised to find some of the best prices on the island at this casual picnic spot with views of the harbor.
Don’t expect a lot of frills here; just get in line and follow the various instructions on hand-written signs around the room. (more…)
Posted in food, travel
Tagged lobster rolls, Martha's Vineyard, restaurants, seafood
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