A Don't Miss in Paris: Chez Michel
May. 31st, 2009
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By Dana McMahan
FoodConnect Louisville
foodconnect.com@gmail.com
A Don’t Miss in Paris - Chez Michel
After my trip to Morocco I tagged on a couple of nights in Paris on my own. I keep returning to this city, lured by many reasons, but mostly for the food. I discovered some fabulous new (to me) spices in Marrakech but was definitely ready for something besides couscous and tagines.
I study up on where to eat before going to Paris as if it’s for my dissertation. I consult books, magazines, Web sites, Twitter, all to find the perfect place to dine. I had only two dinners on this trip, and one with self-professed anti-foodies who nixed my first three choices, so it was that much more important to choose a fabulous restaurant on my first night out, alone.
To complicate matters I knew I’d be tired from traveling in from Marrakech that day and didn’t want to fuss with the metro. I’d be staying in the 10th arrondisement, a scruffy area near Gare de l’est which didn’t bode well – I thought.
Then I picked up the Gourmet magazine special Paris edition from last September (I always save these issues) and read an article about the “new left bank” featuring, happily for me, the 10th! In particular they mentioned a new bistro dishing up Breton food called Chez Michel. Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini also recommends Chez Michel in her new book Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris. The deal was clinched when I saw it was a ten minute walk from my hotel.
My hotel made my reservation for one and I arrived to find a snug, quintessentially French interior, and sat at a tiny table by the stairs with a view into a bit of the kitchen and around most of the restaurant. The fixed price menu of 32 euros (available in English, which was good as I’d left my Marling Menu Master at home) featured a number of options for starter, main and dessert. A chalkboard menu lists substitutions (upgrades) available – they’re tempting but would elevate the reasonable bill into a bit more stratospheric ranges. I kept to the regular menu (not regular to my sensibilities!) and ordered a baked goat cheese salad with pesto, roasted cod with artichoke and a butter tart. To drink I started with pommeau, the delightful mix of calvados and apple juice. They brought with the bread basket a bowl of tiny snails and a béarnaise sauce. This promised to be a delightful dinner!
And it was. Every dish was perfection, and just sitting, watching, and sipping a white wine with my meal was an experience I wish I could bottle and come back to again and again. Eating alone wasn’t as scary as I’d thought – in fact it was a bit liberating, and freed me to focus on the food – and it deserved my focus! You can bet I’ll be back, and the next time you’re in Paris, you should pay a visit too.
10 Rue de Belzunce 10th Arr. Paris. 33-1/44-53-06-20
I study up on where to eat before going to Paris as if it’s for my dissertation. I consult books, magazines, Web sites, Twitter, all to find the perfect place to dine. I had only two dinners on this trip, and one with self-professed anti-foodies who nixed my first three choices, so it was that much more important to choose a fabulous restaurant on my first night out, alone.
To complicate matters I knew I’d be tired from traveling in from Marrakech that day and didn’t want to fuss with the metro. I’d be staying in the 10th arrondisement, a scruffy area near Gare de l’est which didn’t bode well – I thought.
Then I picked up the Gourmet magazine special Paris edition from last September (I always save these issues) and read an article about the “new left bank” featuring, happily for me, the 10th! In particular they mentioned a new bistro dishing up Breton food called Chez Michel. Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini also recommends Chez Michel in her new book Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris. The deal was clinched when I saw it was a ten minute walk from my hotel.
My hotel made my reservation for one and I arrived to find a snug, quintessentially French interior, and sat at a tiny table by the stairs with a view into a bit of the kitchen and around most of the restaurant. The fixed price menu of 32 euros (available in English, which was good as I’d left my Marling Menu Master at home) featured a number of options for starter, main and dessert. A chalkboard menu lists substitutions (upgrades) available – they’re tempting but would elevate the reasonable bill into a bit more stratospheric ranges. I kept to the regular menu (not regular to my sensibilities!) and ordered a baked goat cheese salad with pesto, roasted cod with artichoke and a butter tart. To drink I started with pommeau, the delightful mix of calvados and apple juice. They brought with the bread basket a bowl of tiny snails and a béarnaise sauce. This promised to be a delightful dinner!
And it was. Every dish was perfection, and just sitting, watching, and sipping a white wine with my meal was an experience I wish I could bottle and come back to again and again. Eating alone wasn’t as scary as I’d thought – in fact it was a bit liberating, and freed me to focus on the food – and it deserved my focus! You can bet I’ll be back, and the next time you’re in Paris, you should pay a visit too.
10 Rue de Belzunce 10th Arr. Paris. 33-1/44-53-06-20
Dana has eaten her way from Inverness to Istanbul, and from Monaco to Morocco. A food and travel writer, she lives to explores the world and tell stories of foods discovered and meals devoured in far-flung lands. She once hand-carried a tagine across three continents in order to recreate a Moroccan feast, her backpack smells of spices, and she has been known to smuggle butter home from Paris. Her most recent adventure was learning all about the duck at Camp Confitt in Gascony, France. When at home in Louisville she dishes on restaurant news for her column in the Courier Journal.
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