Sidewalk seats are easy to come by if you want to sip an apéro. Outdoor dining is a trickier proposition. There are plenty of gorgeous spots where the food is grim, and there are delicious restaurants where the outdoor seating is drab. A handful of restaurants manage to do both – serving excellent food in delightful open-air surroundings. Here are our favorites.
Happy Plates
- “Qu’est-ce que c’est bon,” says Caroline Mignot about the linguine with shrimp and zucchini at Caffe dei Cioppi, an address perhaps best appreciated in warm weather, when “the terrace is prettily put to use on the little paved passage.” For what it’s worth, the Italian friend she was dining with proclaimed the pasta “almost as good” as her own. [Table à Découvert]
N’Importe Quoi
- It has come to our attention that there exists a bacon-scented cologne for men, called, naturally, Bacon, and available in Classic or Gold versions. It’s the work of a company called Fargginay, which is supposedly named after a Parisian butcher who believed the smell of bacon had mood-enhancing properties. This is either and elaborate and belated April fools hoax or a sign of the apocalypse. [Eater]
Happy Plates
- Alexander Lobrano confronts and enjoys his second-ever pigs’ foot at Citronelle & Galang, the new Vietnamese restaurant from the team behind Au Coin des Gourmets. He says he’ll be back often for the excellent rouleaux de douze legumes (veggie rolls) and chicken in fresh ginger sauce. [Hungry for Paris]
- Bruno Verjus salutes the “rêve gougère“ made by the bakery Bouché in the Place Monge. Measuring 11cm in diameter, stuffed with Comté cheese and sporting a manly stubble of whole grains, this is about as butch as pâte à choux can get. [Food Intelligence]
Sweet Teeth
- David Lebovitz, who isn’t one to rely on superlatives, says that the kouglof at Vandermeersch is “one of the all-time best things I’ve ever eaten, anywhere.” This bakery on the outskirts of the 12th makes the yeasted cakes only on the weekends (and maybe also on Friday) but D-Leb says says “you will not taste anything better in Paris.” The mayor’s office is organizing crowd control for the coming weekend as a result of this declaration. [David Lebovitz]
Almost universally adored, this tiny spot, hidden from the street, is the Italian restaurant everyone wishes were in their neighborhood.
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A Year in the Mouth
