20 Little Cities » Where to drink

Retro Bottega in Paris: Drinks and Italian goodies on a side street.

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:02:20 +0000

La Retro Bottega is a nice spot for an apéro or a simple lunch; it is located on a small street, right off the Faubourg Saint Antoine’s dense traffic. Sit around their makeshift-like tables for a plate of homemade Italian food or buy some charcuterie and a bottle of wine to go, either way you’ll enjoy their products.

Retro Bottega
12 Rue Saint-Bernard
75011 Paris
tel: 01.74.64.17.39
Metro: Faidherbe-Chaligny

Le siffleur de ballons in Paris: Wine, food, and apéromatchs!

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:14:30 +0000

The restaurant l’Ebauchoir opened a new space, a wine bar, across the street: Le siffleur de ballons. It is a place to eat, drink and buy wine (and other goodies such as terrines, vinegars, honey…) The dishes are simple but good (plate of charcuterie, sandwiches, soupes, salades…) and the prices range from as low as 5€ (the croque siffleur: ham, goat cheese, tomato and roquette) to 12€ (a plate of pata negra bellota ham); wines by the glass range from 3,50€ to 6€. Le siffleur de ballons is a great stop for a quick and simple lunch, for an apéro, to buy a sandwich to go or to buy a bottle or two.
Check out the saturday lunch “Apéromatch”: a wine tasting session consisting in comparing wines from either two different regions, countries, grape variety, vinification… For 18€ you try four different wines while eating cheese and charcuterie.

Le siffleur de ballons
34 rue de Citeaux
75012 Paris
tel: 01.58.51.14.04
Metro: Faidherbe-Chaligny, Reuilly-Diderot

Tu-Sat: 10.30am-3pm / 5.30pm-10pm
Closed on Sunday and Monday

Le Baron Rouge in Paris: A casual well known wine bar around town.

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:43:27 +0000

If you want to mingle with a laid-back crowd—a mixture of blue and white-collar workers, young and old people, fashionable and less fashionable creatures, weirdos and mainstream Parisians—head for Le Baron Rouge. You can’t miss this place, there’s always a huge crowd spilling onto the street in the early evening (apéro time) or on Sunday mornings—there’s nothing like a glass of wine and a plate of charcuterie or a platter of oysters to start the day! The wines are very affordable and the plates of cheeses and charcuterie are generous and delicious. Sometimes the quality of a wine will be directly reflected in its price, but 3€ wasted on piquette (that’s French for cheap wine) is forgivable. It is Paris after all, and it’s hard to find such low prices in popular wine bars. It is also hard to find a table unless you come for a drink outside of drinking hours, so don’t expect to be comfortably seated. And if the only room you find to sip your wine is on the street then be ready to partake in some secondhand cigarette smoke while sharing the sidewalk with interesting looking people… Once I saw an older woman standing out there dressed up in a white leotard exhibiting a very nice body for her age and a pretty indecent camel toe. This alone was worth a stop.

Le Baron Rouge
1 Rue Théophile Roussel
75012 Paris
tel: 01.43.43.14.32
Metro: Ledru-Rollin

Tu-Sat: 10am-2pm / 5pm-10pm
Sun: 10am-4pm
Closed on Monday

Le Square Trousseau: A perfect terrasse in Paris open all day for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:51:17 +0000

If you saw the movie “Paris, je t’aime” then you have seen the inside of this lovely turn of the century café-restaurant located right across the street from the pretty square Trousseau—a perfect view from the heated terrasse. My favorite time to hang out at Le Square Trousseau is during off-hours when there is always a free table on the terrasse (and not too many smokers around) and for l’apéro or breakfast. They serve good coffee and some of the best croissants and pain au chocolats (voted best in Paris) that come from the very popular bakery next door, Blé Sucré.
The restaurant fills up pretty quickly for lunch and dinner so I would recommend making a reservation. If you want to try a dish that makes this restaurant more than worth going back to, try the seven-hour lamb. Oh, and the hamburger looks delicious. Le Square Trousseau restaurant can also accommodate private parties up to 18 people in the restaurant’s adjacent private dining-room. The food is good, the staff is great, the place is very charming, the atmosphere is peaceful, there’s free Wi-Fi and magazines, Le Square Trousseau is always open—it’s a great address.

Le square Trousseau
1 Rue Antoine Vollon
75012 Paris
tel: 01.43.43.06.00
Metro: Ledru-Rollin

Open 7/7
M-Sun: 8am-2pm (lunch/dinner menu from 12pm until 12am non-stop)

Café Verlet in Paris: A place for tasty espresso drinks near the Louvre.

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:51:33 +0000

I know a place in Paris where the espressos don’t taste like tar. Established as a coffee roaster since 1880, Café Verlet is no secret to coffee and tea lovers; three Michelin stars chefs such as Alain Passard, Pierre Gagnaire or Gérard Passédat order their coffee there. Owned by Eric Duchossoy who comes from a family with a long tradition of coffee roasters, Café Verlet has been in the hands of the same family for the past three generations.
Open all day, Café Verlet offers a small lunch menu as well as some tarts from the fancy pastry shop Stohrer. But what stands out the most on the menu is the two-page list of coffee beans to choose from: you pick the coffee beans of your choice and they grind them right there and then to make your espresso drink.
Among the wide selection of coffee beans for sale (Africa, Central and South America, Asia) Café Verlet has a selection of gourmets beans from Australia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Yemen, Hawaii and a very rare one from Guadeloupe considered one of the best in the world.
Café Verlet also has a wide selection of teas (about 50) sold in bulk, ranging from classics to blended and flavored teas, with some rare and very fine ones such as the Japanese Gyokuro (green tea) or the Chinese Yin Zhen Jasmin (white tea).

Café Verlet
256 Rue Saint-Honoré
75001 Paris
tel: 01.42.60.67.39
Metro: Palais-Royal - Musée du Louvre

M-Sat: 9.30am-7pm (Tea salon closes at 6.30pm)
Closed on Sunday

Café des Musées in Paris: Seasonal and artisanal bistro food.

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:50:52 +0000

At Café des Musées, the food is seasonal, straightforward and comforting. Whether choosing the Entrecôte à la plancha with fries and salad in a tarragon dressing (17,50€) or the 19€ dinner menu with its artichoke (served with both crème fraîche and vinaigrette), mackerel and rice, and the plum tart of the day, you will find yourself enjoying a simple meal very well crafted, in a relaxed atmosphere. For dessert try the red currant clafoutis for its perfect balance of sweet and sour (the caramelized hard crust makes it more of a crème brulée than a clafoutis, but that’s just one more reason to order it!) The service is very friendly and the servers are more than happy to speak English. The menu offers a good selection of classic French dishes reasonably priced and for lunch the prix fixe menu is a bargain at 12€. The Café des Musées is open all day and serves breakfast until noon.

Café des Musées
49 Rue de Turenne
75003 Paris
tel: 01.42.72.96.17
Metro: Fille du Calvaire

7/7
breakfast
M-F: 8am-12pm
Sat-Sun: 10.30am-12pm

lunch
M-F: 12pm-3pm
Sat-Sun: 12pm-4pm

Dinner
7pm-11pm

Le Rostand in Paris: a superb terrasse facing the Jardin du Luxembourg.

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:57:18 +0000

You might have seen the restaurant/café Le Rostand in Paris Je t’aime, with Gena Rowlands and Bob Hoskins being served by Gerard Depardieu. When it isn’t used as a movie set Le Rostand has a wonderful terrasse facing the gorgeous Jardin du Luxembourg. Le Rostand is a perfect spot for sipping champagne and eating olives in the afternoon sun, or indulging in a hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream and a sweet crêpe, say for example, after visiting Le Panthéon.

Le Rostand
6 place Edmond Rostand
75006 Paris
tel: 01.43.54.61.58
Metro: Cluny
RER: Luxembourg

7/7
M-Sun: 8am-2am

Le Refectoire: French bistro food.

admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:44:14 +0000

Le refectoire means refectory. The water glasses are the same ones that French kids drink out of in the school cafeteria (the ones that have a number at the bottom.) The dishes served overall are traditional bistro food, sometimes with a twist such as the hachis parmentier (a ground beef-mash potato dish) made here with boudin noir sausage instead of beef. It would have been perfect if served a bit warmer. The hamburger comes with bacon, cheese and avocado and is served with good fries. The place gets very busy around lunch time and quickly empties as people go back to work. Le Refectoire is open all day every day of the week, the wine is cheap and good, there’s free WI-FI, the atmosphere is nice, the servers are very friendly and the few tables on the sidewalk (I’m not going to call it a terrasse) get a lot of sun. You might even get the unsolicited company of the house cat.

Le Refectoire
80 Boulevard Richard Lenoir
75011 Paris
tel: 01.48.06.74.85
Metro: Richard Lenoir, Saint-Ambroise

7/7
M-Sat: 8.30am-12am (lunch: 12pm-2.30pm
dinner: 8pm-11pm)
Sun: 11am-4pm

Le Petit Café on rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris

admin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:08:57 +0000

When 70’s formica countertops meet 90’s track lighting, you have Le Petit Café on rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine. It is a very small and charming little neighborhood café, with 8 tables (6 tables of 4 and 2 tables of 2) and a bar — a small formica bar. It is tended by the lovely Arlette, a lady in her early seventies, who bakes the sweet tarts and the delicious quiches herself. I walked in really hungry one day and even though it was tea time she made me up a plate of quiche Lorraine and cruditées (shredded carrots, celery remoulade, red cabbage and some diced beets). It totally hit the spot.
Le Petit Café is a very mellow place, a little corner of peace and quiet in the middle of the very busy Faubourg Saint-Antoine—the cabinetmakers’ neighborhood since the Middle Ages.

Le Petit Café
89 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine
75011 Paris
tel: 01.43.43.11.63
Metro: Ledru-Rollin

M: 1pm-7pm
Tu-Sat: 10am-7pm
Closed on Sunday

For cocktails in Paris go to Le China bar

admin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:59:48 +0000

Where can I get good cocktails in Paris? That is the question. Feeling like sipping on a dry Martini or a Lemon Mint Julep? A Rum Old Fashioned or a Side Car? Definitely check out Le China in Paris. I personally really enjoyed their Cosmopolitan. The fruit and juices they use for their cocktails are FRESH! It is also a restaurant that serves Chinese food—not straight up Chinese because it has some Thaï and Vietnamese flavors added to the mix. Remember, this is France after all… You can order dim sum and egg rolls as well as a beef lemongrass salad or a caramelized pork dish. The restaurant serves brunch on the weekend. Le China also has a space for live music in the basement called Le China Club. And last but not least there’s a cool little place on the first floor called Le Fumoir, a lovely area where you can sip cognac or drink tea and munch on Asian food while playing chess or backgammon.

Le China
50 Rue de Charenton
75012 Paris
tel: 01.43.46.08.09
Metro: Ledru-Rollin, Bastille

7/7
M-Sat: 6pm-2am (dinner served from 7.45pm-12am)
Sun: 12pm-2pm