The Paris Hit List, Summer 2022 Edition: Racines, Superfrais, Folderol, and More

Once the weather improves and the light doesn’t fade until after 10 p.m. the priority for diners in Paris is to be set up comfortably on a terrace somewhere, almost anywhere, to take in the sunset. This casual tapas-style café sits right on the banks of the Seine river, reachable only by a stone staircase or ramp from street level, with a spacious but quickly-snatched-up outdoor dining area. If you can’t snag a terrace spot, the indoor dining room, occupying a former mechanical room built into the wall of the Quay du Louvre and bathed in warm light at all hours of the day, is a worthy alternative. Wherever you sit, prepare to order one of everything on the shared-plates menu concocted by Argentinian chef Adriana Seghetta, such as the beef empanadas, marinated sardines, endive salad with smoked anchovies and mozzarella, or grilled cod served with roasted onions, cauliflower and a watercress dressing. Order Deck & Donohue beer or a bottle of one of the organic wines on offer and linger until late.

Reservations available online here.

If this beloved bistro in the Passage des Panoramas, one of the oldest covered passageways in Paris, is thriving today it’s entirely thanks to Simone Tondo, the Sardinian chef who took over in late 2017. He revived the compact restaurant as a bistroteria, earnestly blending his grandmother’s recipes with traditional Parisian bistro techniques, and earned a Michelin star in 2019. Dishes, which are presented on a blackboard and served on vintage tableware, are comforting and unchallenging (which is honestly what you sometimes want from a meal). That might be fresh pasta with beef cheek ragout, vitello tonnato, Milanese-style veal chops, or one of several last-minute additions that pair beautifully with the natural Italian wines selected by the sommelière Stephanie Crockford.

Reservations available online here.

After 7 years building a loyal following at Tempero, her tiny first restaurant in the 13th arrondissement, the Brazil-born chef Alessandra Montagne has graduated to a newer and larger space in the modern, business section of the 13th arrondissement, directly across from the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand. What Nosso lacks in classic Parisian elements –no crown moldings or Chevron floors but floor-to-ceiling windows that let in incredible light, even on the darkest days– it makes up for in ambiance and truly inspiring cooking. Zero-waste has become a common culinary lingua franca in Parisian dining in recent years but few chefs take the ethos as seriously as Chef Montagne insists upon nose-to-tail cooking, ultra locavore sourcing (80-90% of ingredients come from the Ile de France region), and minimizing discarded food. On the plate, the experience typically begins with her signature carrot focaccia dressed with thin strips of Bottarga and oxalis leaves in a carrot purée, then continues with a barley risotto accompanied by seasonal vegetables (for now, that’s white asparagus and swiss chard), pork confit on a bed of sweet potato purée and farofa, and concludes with a restyled lemon meringue tart. Another bonus here: you can choose from nearly a dozen wines served by the glass.

Open Mon-Fri, lunch and dinner. Reservations available online here.

An ice cream parlor and cave à vin hybrid may seem a curious follow-up to a Michelin-starred, vaguely yakitori restaurant, but it all makes sense for Robert Compagnon and Jessica Yang-Compagnon. The couple earned a following for their small plates menu with binchotan grilled dishes when they opened Le Rigmarole in 2018. Given their affection for natural and biodynamic wines and homemade ice creams, both fixtures of Le Rigmarole experience, Folderol is a fitting extension. Located next door to the restaurant in a 430-square-foot space, the shop is set up around a central, concrete horseshoe bar and features a diverse range of natural wines to take home, and more than a dozen ice cream and sorbet flavors at one time. Depending on when you visit, that might range from clementine creamsicle and crunchy peanut to hojicha and yogurt hibiscus, some available by the scoop in a homemade waffle cone or cup, others in cartons ready to stock a home freezer. Now that restrictions have been lifted, the shop has settled nicely into its other vocation: a lively wine bar with a short selection of snacks, from homemade focaccia to charcuterie and cheeses, that fills up fast and draws in drinkers with late-night munchies until midnight.

Walk-ins only.

First, this 11th arrondissement spot owned by Florent Ciccoli was Bones, the inventive neo-bistro that turned the Australian chef James Henry into something of a celebrity, then Ciccoli turned it into Jones when Henry moved onto other projects. Since, it’s been a casual, small plates and natural wine bar with big energy and a steady following. More recently, a new chef took over the kitchens to uphold that reputation. The Italian chef Riccardo Ferrant brings a Mediterranean influence to the sharing menu: start with the crispy tomato, scamorza and sage arancini and a fresh fennel, radish, and apple salad dressed with labneh sprinkled with za’atar, continue with mussels escabèche served with pomelo and mizuna or a simple but perfect bowl of maccheroni all’amatriciana, and finish with a luscious olive oil ice cream mixed with a thyme-inflected buttery crumble.

Reservations available online here.

Some of the brightest culinary talents in France have competed on the French edition of Top Chef and among them, Pauline Séné is perhaps the most promising. She’s turned this erstwhile neighborhood bar, now with restored moldings, period mirrors, marble floors and countertops, and brass light fixtures, into an elegant destination for her ingredient-driven cooking. The menu rotates throughout each season but always incorporates a surprising flavor element, whether it’s the nuoc-mâm and kumquat jus with the fresh oysters, the wild garlic in the crisp asparagus dish served with shaved radishes and toasted hazelnuts, or the capers in the ris de veau served with potato cream. They’re all beautifully presented on artisanal ceramic dishware that immediately dress up the experience. If lunch is more your speed, the chef offers a generous prix fixe menu for 25 euros with the same attentive service as in the evening. The only difference: the glorious golden light of daytime sun that fills the dining room.

Reservations available by phone on 09 81 89 27 40.

Once the mixologist and entrepreneur Margot Lecarpentier left her mark on Parisian nightlife with Combat, an award-winning craft cocktail and small plates bar in Belleville, she set her sights on the daytime crowds. Located a quick walk to the Buttes Chaumont park, Capitale is an intimate café kitted out with flea-market finds and an unpretentious approach to all-day breakfast and brunch. There’s quality coffee, Combat-style cocktails, non-coffee and non-alcoholic drinks like the house Doodh (milk and 7up mixed together with pistachios), and a short selection of brunch-appropriate dishes, like eggs sunny side up with ricotta and chive oil, a croissant sandwich filled with thin layers of smoked turkey, avocado, cheese, and potato chips, and veggie chirashi. If you miss the lunch hour, go for an afternoon goûter to try one of the cakes-of-the-day or the salty-sweet waffle.

Walk-ins only.

If you didn’t already know, pizza and pasta are among the top five dishes in heavy rotation in the Parisian diet but almost none of the pies served up around town are made with sourdough. At Papi, designed by the Shanghai-based studio Neri&Hu, not only is there sourdough pizza but a menu of Japanese twists on Italian classics. Chef Akira Sugiura, who previously worked in Piedmont, quickly earned attention for his udon cacio e pepe topped with egg yolk, spaghettoni with mentaiko, and a spianata pizza with ‘nduja, and smoked cherry tree honey. Desserts are equally as intriguing, from the blood orange panna cotta with jellied campari and kinako tiramisu with black caramel from Okinawa.

Reservations available online here.

First, the Liquid Corp group brought Paris the excellent craft cocktail bars Moonshiner and Dirty Dick, then the pizzerias Louie Louie and Da Vito. In late 2020, the group founded by Alexis Poirson added this hybrid spot in Belleville. Halfway between a gourmet minimart and café, SuperFrais is both a destination for specialty products, from artisanal hot sauces and locally-made yogurt to fresh produce, sausages, and natural wines and craft beers, and for made-to-order salads and sandwiches. Locals sidle up to the counter each day for generously-stuffed baguette sandwiches (appropriately nicknamed SuperSandwich), with or without meat, or come for one of their guest-developed concoctions offered for about a week, like the recent Superveggie– tahini and hummus, Sumac coated red onions, roasted vegetables, sucrine and feta on a Za’atar pita made by Sain Boulangerie–in collaboration with the Levantine street food restaurant Parsley.

Walk-ins only.

Like most global capitals, Paris’s Chinese restaurants have historically been a reflection of first-wave immigration and largely concentrated in specific neighborhoods– the 13th arrondissement and Belleville. There have always been classic, unshowy Chinese restaurants on one end and gastronomic iterations, often set up in luxury hotels, on the other. Virtually nonexistent were the in-between options until Céline Chung and Billy Pham’s, founders of the Bao Family restaurant group, opened Petit Bao in 2019. Their approach was to dismantle stereotypes around Chinese cuisine and offer a diversity of dishes in design-forward spaces that would attract a younger crowd – or at least, a crowd as interested in vibe as they are in the food itself. Bleu Bao, the third restaurant in the group’s portfolio, serves up bao and dim sum, which diners can see getting made by hand behind the ground floor bar,Dong Po pork belly and ginger milk curd, alongside creative cocktails (try the Nankin Minimaliste, with gin, shiso, umeshu, verjus and tonic) in a two-level space that playfully riffs on old-world Chinese tea houses.

Walk-ins only.