food for thought

when it comes to choosing a restaurant (at least when I'm relied on to make that choice), I tend to not plan things in advance and pretty much decide on the spot. Reservations ? Not my bag baby. Such a situation arose last night when I was out with a friend near Opera (more specifically the Galeries, where I bought a pair of jeans, unfortunately not on sale) and we were both beginning to feel the pangs of hunger.

After walking for a few minutes toward rue de Rivoli (my friend had to take the RER at Chatelet to go home, so we walked in that direction), I remembered that we were in the vicinity of one of my favorite small bistrots in Paris, le Bar de l'Entracte. Located on rue de Montpensier, just behind the Palais Royal gardens, it should be overrun by tourists, but for some reason isn't. One of its main selling points is the great terrace. I'm not a big fan of Parisian terraces, as too often they're too close to a pedestrian-filled pavement, or they're just a people-watching HQ for jaded Parisians. But this is the real deal. The place is on a small street, so there's nary a car in sight, and the only time there's a crowd on the street is when the Theatre du Palais Royal lets out its audience (and even then it's nothing major).

But it's not just location, location, location when it comes to this bistrot, as the menu is quite cheap (for that neighborhood). One of their specialties is the bowl of macaroni and light cream which they couple with various ingredients: swiss cheese, chicken, lardoon... They've got at least 10 different recipes and all those I've tried were delicious. They've got plenty of other items on the menu as well, although I can't say I've tried those. The service is good and the way the tables are set up mean you can even -yes, I know this might be shocking in Paris- make small talk with people around you. There's also an Italian restaurant right next to it, with the same sort of terrace, so I might have to try that one of these days (although I've pretty much given up on finding pizza as good as that I used to have in NYC).

I'm not a big fan of dressed-up eating, where a meal can take up 2h (when I was a kid I always had a problem with long meals, and I've barely gotten better since), my thing is more the small "unremarkable" places that end up knocking your socks off because of their great combination of relaxed setting, laid-back people and good food. What's funny is once you get there, good conversations start flowing, a feeling of well-being takes over, and you end up staying 2 hours+. Le Bar de l'Entracte is one of those places, and I hope it won't be two years before I go there again.

picture taken by Nokier