dine•o•crat

My first impression of the restaurant  Les Tablettes de Jean-Louis Nomicos‎  was mixed. One the one hand, the place oozed with cool, its basketweave interior an absolutely stunning marvel of modern precision interlaced with hand-craftsmanship. On the other hand, there was a dog at the table next to us. Granted, it was a small dog, quiet and adorable, a companion to the old madam  whose two younger female dining partners looked like they could be the second and third branches of the family tree. Parisian ladies who lunch? The Chanel jackets told as much. My imagination ran wild: in my mind, the two younger women were trying to save their inheritance because somehow, the old lady got involved with a much younger lothario, an opportunistic gigolo who was about to get half of her millions or billions of euros in assets. But les femmes did it all with such warmth and conviviality, all smiles and bonheur . It was even putting the dog to sleep. Welcome to Paris....

It's been said that the long, full-course French lunch is disappearing . For various reasons—among others, health and economic—the French need to eat shorter, hence smaller, lunches. Septime, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, is still a place for long lunches in a decidedly more casual environment. (The picture of three young women across the street having their lunch on a bench, however, is an apt juxtaposition that represents France's changing lunch economics.) Entering Septime is like walking into a San Francisco or New York hipster restaurant. The waiters all wear white shirts, jeans, sneakers and aprons. The atmosphere is very relaxed and the focus is on the food. The pedigreed chef, Bertrand Grébaut of L'Arpège and L'Agapé, offers in his less formal restaurant a tantalizing and welcoming spareness both in the decor and the food. I sensed that the preparations had this philosophy behind them: the techniques and presentations are mere backdrops for, not the fo...

"Nicole Kidman is next door, vous l'avez vue ?" asked our waitress after we sat down at Les Bouquinistes. My dining companions and I looked outside, into the inscrutable and slightly drizzly evening. The sudden appearance of a swarm of paparazzi, circling the building like giant fireflies, gave credence to her claim. "Really?" I wanted to ask. "Did she bring her career with her? Because she seems to have left it somewhere equally hard to spot." Besides, we had already found our star that night and it was food. Les Bouquinistes , Ze Kitchen Galerie 's neighbor, is breathtaking at night. The Seine is right in front, lit up and glorious, Notre Dame is in the distance overseeing the night's activities on the Left Bank. It was Fashion Week in Paris, which made the appearance of a celebrity logical, though her appearance in the restaurant next door was a mystery worthy of Poirot. Les Bouquinistes is Guy Savoy's more "affordable" o...

This is a scene of the River Seine during the day, around lunchtime, from the Pont Neuf. It's magnificent and expansive, but what may not be immediately evident is the cluster of autos on the street, on the Quai des Grands Augustins. Along the middle right side of the picture, a traffic jam, or embouteillage , as the French call it, which is a fact of life here, the quiet hum of running but non-moving cars punctuated by the occasional shrieking ambulance and the tolling bells of nearby Notre Dame Cathedral. Across the street,  Ze Kitchen Gallerie  offers a welcome respite from the interminable bustle, a place for a filling repast before you move on to your next touristic adventure. Chef William Ledeuil honed his craft at Les Bouquinistes, which abuts ZKG, before moving on to open his own place to showcase his playful culinary creations. A source of solidly prepared, delicious food along the rive gauche , ZKG is a grand gastronomic stop in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. ...