Café Canon - Paris 13th

Le Café Canon

8, rue Auguste Perret

75013 Paris

Tél : 01 45 80 18 30

→ website

There's always a good atmosphere at Café Canon, and the prices are reasonable. There's a young team running the place, and when I mentioned it they confirmed my observation that:
1) The owner is quite a character, with a lot of personality
2) The two of them are from Normandy and have known each other since high school. There's a good working atmosphere and everyone gets along well.
3) Since they are from Normandy, they were well qualified to recommend a Calvados, as well as the owner's house made plum liquor, under the café's own label.

Georges - Paris (75002)

Georges
1, rue du Mail
75002 Paris
Tel : 01.42.60.07.11
Open from Monday to Friday lunch and diner (booking advised).



We’re talking about a classic here.

The pitch
If you’re able to spend €60 painlessly this is a wicked restaurant where you eat pig’s nose salad, followed by a Georges-style sole and profiterolles. (1)

There are many pictures so I’m putting the review on its own to spare your iPhones.

The restaurant
It’s located in an area that I love particularly, around the Place des Victoires. It’s trendy, calm and beautiful all at once! The Georges sits majestically, unimpressed by the cool-indie-skinny fashion surrounding it.
By entering Georges you make a few choices: the one of darkness over light for instance, apart from the two first tables the rest of the restaurant is quite dark when the square (Place des Victoires) is often very sunny. You come to Georges because you’re after something solid and established as opposed to the fleeting sun and trends of the outside world.

The Meal
It's a menu like you dont see any more.



The starters
As stated in the pitch the pig’s nose salad is a knock out, as well as the terrine. Slight disappointment with the boiled eggs and mayonnaise (I couldn’t see the point in putting bland tomatoes on the side and the mayonnaise wasn’t quite vibrant and light enough for me) but I was happy nonetheless since my neighbour took the pig’s nose salad bowl: there was plenty for two.



The main courses
For our main courses we had fish: Georges-style sole with cream and white wine as well as a grilled turbot with béarnaise sauce : spot on!





The desserts
We had profiteroles and a tarte Tatin (2). It’s pretty simple here: just get your taste buds to remember the exquisite flavours that these desserts evoke and that’s what you’ll get!
(Sorry about the picture, the Tatin was being a bit shy).



Conclusion
It’s phenomenal! If you want to eat old-school French cuisine and indulge in some food sensations that’ll make you travel around the country. But you have to be able to cough out €50 which doesn’t happen every day, or every month…

1) Choux pastry, filled with cream and topped with melted chocolate
2) Upside down apple tart with caramel

Gallopin - Paris (75002)

Gallopin 2ème visite (la 1ère → ici)
40, rue Notre-Dame des Victoires
75002 Paris
Tel : 01.42.36.45.38
Open daily from noon to midnight
→ the website













The restaurant
The first thing about this brasserie is the decor : it was opened in 1876 by Gustave Gallopin, secondly it’s the location : the Bourse (1) is very calm in the evening and finally the atmosphere which is actually naughtier than you might think.
To cut to the chase: I love arriving at 10.30 after a few drinks and ordering a killer meal : andouillette (2) from Troyes at €15.50 followed by their famous rum baba (3) the ‘Gallopin baba with sultanas, punched with St James amber rum’.
The pan fried Chateaubriand (4) with a ‘two peppers’ sauce is flamed with superior champagne brandy and served with fries: €26.50.
€24 set-menu with a starter and a main or a main and a dessert.













The owner was very friendly and offered to tell me the story of the venue. I thought that Gallopin belonged to the Blanc brothers or to the group Flo but it actually belongs to the Alexandre family who has owned it since 1997 after they sold Bofinger: this adds to the likeability of the place, I say.











The back-story
In 1876 Gustave starts a bar next door and a year later opens the famous brasserie.
He imports wood from Cuba for the over-sized counter and registers his business under the name American Bar. That’s right, he wanted it to be a bridge between Paris and New York! You can still read “American drinks’ or ‘Stock exchange’ on the wood panels.










Gustave Galloping designed the 2 Gs logo himself.
And last but not least the beer ‘gallopin’ (20cl) was invented here, if you order it you will get the ‘gallopin’ shown below.

(1) Stock exchange quarter of Paris
(2) Traditional pork sausage
(3) Small sponge cake soaked in rum flavoured syrup.
(4) Thick tenderloin of beef

Bistrots & Brasseries

Here, you've figured out, are listed the true parisian bistro and the authentic brasseries, to breath in some of the finest parisien tastes.

75001 - Au Petit Bar
75001 - Le Bistrot des Halles
75002 - Gallopin
75002 - Georges
75009 - La Clairière
75009 - Le Vin au Vert

75018 - Les Routiers