Paris
By Joe Ray
This is the place I used to go to in Paris to make sure I knew (why) I was here. It connected me to my city with shoulder-to-shoulder seating and decent bistro food, preferably preceded with a drink at the crowded bar.
There are simple rules: go late and avoid anything that swims. I used to make an exception for a smoked herring and potatoes that down with a Meteor draft, but I won’t be doing that anymore.
A bout a year ago, the crotchety old owner left and the new owners have tried to keep much of the same feeling while cutting a few corners and bumping prices slightly northward. Case in point? Six oysters served on the half shell served with a glass of Colombelle white for 14€. Whose bright idea was it to pair oysters with plonk marketed at women?
I digress. The aim here is to revel in the conversation, getting down to the nitty-gritty with old friends under what used to be a thick cloud of smoke that descends like a heavy carpet. (This is one of the few places that seems less enjoyable with the laws that have pushed smokers outside.)
Here, you eat a steak, have a few glasses/bottles of wine and realize with a start that it’s 5 a.m. and you’ve spent eight hours connecting.
Lucky us.
Count on 30-50 euros, depending on how much connecting you want to do.
Le Tambour - MAP
41 Rue Montmartre
75002 Paris, France
+33 1 42 33 06 90
Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the author of the blog Eating The Motherland and contributes to The Boston Globe's travel blog, Globe-trotting.
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