Looking for divine French food not to far from Sacre Coeur-Montmartre

[sadieapple]

We only have 4 days in July in Paris and our hotel is on Rue Joseph De Maistre. Please take me away from the tourists to a place where I can roll my eyes. I'm looking for suggestions, directions, romantic/relaxed atmosphere (outside is great) and I'd love the burden to be off me and on you as to what to order, including the right wines. My husband and I are older adults and don't speak the language so translations would be helpful.

Also, any advice as to the best markets for fresh fruit and table linens? Great bakeries and coffee places to sit outside and people watch?

[RCC]

I don't know how far you'd want to stray away from Montmartre, but I'd recommned Le Pantruche in the Pigalle area which I think is near enough. We had a very good lunch in this charming bistro last week. Here's my report:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/827418

http://lepantruche.com/

[Delucacheesemonger]

The restaurants mentioned thus far are wonderful, so l will mention others super food things near you.
Bakery-Boulanger/ On Rue Abbesses is a branch of Grenier de Pain-great ficelles and my fav
kouign-amann in France
Chocolatier/ Lahrer on Rue Caulincourt, a Meilleur de France, many interesting things
Fromager/ Chez Virginie on Rue Damremont, many unusual cheeses, especially the rare ones from the Arriege.

[mangeur]

"the rare ones from the Arriege"...

Why we love you and why we love Chowhound! I'd never heard of this department, but be assured we'll make it a point to ferret out cheeses from this jewel of the luscious Southwest.

[sadieapple]

Many thanks to all for the delightful suggestions and the plate snatching story, just wonderful! If we only had more time the selection process wouldn't be so difficult. I feel well armed with choices now from what should be a chapter in a guide book hidden away to preserve these gems. I can only hope I don't resort to running off with a plate myself. Particular thanks for suggestions on bakeries, cheese and chocolate shops and the markets.

[Parigi]

In this article of "old" news,
http://girlsguidetoparis.com/archives...
3 of the best baguettes bakeries are within walking distance from the Terrace:
- Gontran Cherrier (nearest, mentioned in my first reply),
- Le Grenier à pain (already mentioned above by DCM; actually the ficelle is better than the baguette),
- Au Levain d'antan (2011 winner).
Gontran Cherrier also has multi-colored (am not kidding) sandwiches that are great for picnic.

[mangeur]

Another charming patisserie is Aurore Capucine on lower Rochechouart. Savory sables in herbal flavors for apero, sweet ones in lavender and rose flavors, cakes in whimsical flavors and shapes. Great source of hostess offerings. Or just to gawk at the Alice in Wonderland creations.

Aurore Capucine
3, rue de Rochechouart, 75009 Paris
Tel. [phone]
Métro: Cadet
Hours: Tues. to Sat. 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.;
Sat. closed between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

[Parnassien]

I love all the suggestions so far (Table d'Eugène, Jour de Fête , etc). And the roof terrace of your hotel is pretty special but of course pricey. Even though you are a hotel guest, I'd reserve a table on the roof terrace even for drinks. It's very very popular at weekends. One more neighbourhood rec to add to your list: La Mascotte on the rue des Abbesses. One of the few remaining AUTHENTIC relics of the old Montmartre... and, at least in my experience, never a bad meal. Admittedly I prefer it in winter when I can pig out on its oysters and seafood platters but the summer menu is also full of well-sourced and well-cooked dishes. Although hard-core foodies might have a complaint or two, locals love it. Tourists love it. Go! And open on Sunday!

Another (more reluctant) rec. Tourists in Montmartre, like a moth to the flame, are invariably drawn to the place du Tertre next to Sacré Coeur. We Parisiens hate it but tourists will be tourists and usually think that this contrived Frenchness is, well, French. All this to say that the only place for a little pitstop on or near the Place du Tertre that is not an outright tourist trap is Chez Plumeau on the place Calvaire/ rue Calvaire (the little side street off the Place du Tertre at the Musée Dali and Le Sabot Rouge). And an ultra-charming terrace all the more charming because it's slightly removed from the tourist hordes. Brasserie hours (i.e. continuous service from 8am to midnight or so) so you can have a snack during non-meal hours.

[Parigi]

Agree with all of Mangeur's choice, as always. And I even agree that La Table d'Eugène is toward the top of that list, but its wine selection is not as wowey as Saturne.

La Mascotte is a great place, esp for the oysters. I have been going for years and didn't know its name. We called it the oyster place.
Atmosphere-wise, lunch is better than dinne. It is so nice to sit out on a nice day and watch the Abbesses fauna.
Sadieapple, it is perfectly ok to eat oysters in France in July. In fact don't miss the Gillardeau oysters. You may want to write it out for the waiter (and how many you want, always in multiples of 6). Gillardeau is the most expensive type of oyster but soooo good. It is the kind of thing that one must put on one's tongue at least once in a lifetime.

Ahhh, the Place du Tertre.
Parnassien is very brave to mention it and even come up with a rec there, since he too of course hates it. Don't we all.
But I firmly believe that some, in fact many, tourists have taste too. Reading Sadieapple's fave resto list, I would urge her not to go (to PdT). -- OK, go, but with closed eyes. One look will contaminate you. :-)

[Parnassien]

I'm stuck with the prejudice that summer shellfish is not quite as good as winter's. My grandmother's fault. And at La Mascotte, the beef and pork are so good that it almost seems rational to change from surf to turf in the summer. The front including the sidewalk tables mostly functions as a very busy and noisy bar du quartier. With, oh no, the occasional sing-along. But the bar doesn't really prepare you for how nice and civilized the mirrored dining room in the rear is. Like lots of Montmartre, the sidewalks are too narrow and the streets too busy for more than a single row of outside tables. Not the best setup for expert people watchers. We need a little insulation and distance to practice our art. So, for me at least, it's always inside in the dining room at La Mascotte.

A little histoire: Once, at a sidewalk table somewhere else on the rue des Abbesses, a moustachioed guy snatched my sister's entire plate of food and ran off... the waiter and she tried to follow the trail of scattered frites but failed to retrieve her stolen meal. Other cities have murder, rape, etc. Paris has plate snatching.

And oh yes, the place du Tertre is the Medusa of Paris tourist spots. I've considered homicide and suicide to escape being dragged there by some visiting foreign friend. I tell them that they don't need a Parisien to guide them around because, after all, French is a foreign language here. I tell them that Las Vegas or Disneyland probably have better versions. I tell them about bag snatching and pickpockets. But nothing works. The tourist mind is filled with idées fixes, I guess. So while they are getting their fix at Sacré Coeur and the place du Tertre, I hang out out at Chez Plumeau or wander down the rue Norvins to the little park that links the rue Girardon, avenue Junot and rue Simon Dereure to remind myself that la Butte Montmartre is still able to seduce with hidden delights.

[mangeur]

It is always helpful to responders to have a feeling for the tastes and experience of the people they are trying to guide. Can you give us a feeling for the restaurants or kinds of restaurants you enjoy at home, maybe where home is, and what kinds of wines you enjoy. Your divine and mine and hers may be three totally different restaurants. Help us send you to the right table.

[sadieapple]

Home was New York City, now Pennsylvania. We'll be coming from living in Rome for 2 months and there I love to prepare things I get from the Mercato di Testaccio, ie fish, mushrooms, roast pork, lots of fresh fruit, bread, salad etc. I usually will pick up a bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. The Four Seasons in Philadelphia, Bouley in NYC, Sycamore Grill in the Delaware Water Gap have all prepared dishes that I'd call divine. But there is an Italian restaurant downstairs from our apartment in Rome that makes a pizza that could only be called divine. Parigi has provided such wonderful and specific info, which is what I was looking for, that anything along those lines is appreciated. Thanks for the advice on posting.

[mangeur]

Having already offered up our one favorite in your neighborhood, I can't do better than to give you the list of the restaurants we enjoyed in December. They are all modern French, young chefs and staff, enthusiastic and creative: Rino, Saturne, Le Galopin, Chatomat, Septime, Surprisingly, Eugene topped them all on this particular visit, but every one was special in its own way. We will revisit most of these on our spring visit, so you can see that they met our standards.

I should also mention that we are also older, and appreciate dining rooms that are quiet enough to carry on a conversation. The above meet that requirement.

[Parigi]

I also like La Table d'Eugène very much. Last time I dined there, the food was very good, and the waitress truly helpful to my dining companion who had quite a few food allergies. Therefore please overlook her habit of speaking very loudly and interrupting at times (perhaps she is slightly deaf) and that, upon being asked where an "exotique" ingredient came out, she replied: "do you really need to know?" Really, she was nice and helpful, ok, not the queen of social well-roundedness. Her English was also quite good.

In all good (and of course smaller) Paris bistros, the menu changes weekly, depending on what's fresh for the season. So unless we dine there the day before you go, what we ate and could recommend would probably not help you.
Consequently the menu at La Table d'Eugène is very short, with only 2, 3 choices per course. The last time we went, the 5 of us had just about all the dishes on the menu, and we liked everything.

Are you at the Terrass hotel? Rue Caulaincourt is right around the corner from you, a beautiful and very Montmartrois kind of street. Not only touristss have spared it, but it also has several interesting eateries. They are not as good as La Table d'E, but if you want to stick to your neighborhood yet wisely want to avoid the touristy Montmartre fare, here are a few options for casual good bites:
Jour de Fête, on 41. Good bistro food. The interior is not opulent, but the atmosphere is genuine and Parisian and local.
Another nice casual restaurant, Le Café Qui Parles, on n°24, that serves good food in a nice atmosphere. But I have not been in the last year.
Across the narrow rue Tourlaqué, on n°22 rue Caulaincourt, is the famously good bakery Gontran Cherrier.

Within walking distance from you is another good bistro Café Burq. But it is in a very hilly side street of Montmartre. Sinc you say you are older adults, I don't know if the walk there would be too strenuous. Another problem: although the food there is good, the place is unfortunately frequented by Parisian hipsters. Good news: half the time more than half the restaurant is empty, while most diners are out smoking. Bad news: the music is loud.

A sign for all such non-touristy good bistros is that there is no English menu. Except for La Table d'E, I don't remember whether the other places have an English-speakign staff. Le Café Qui Parle seemed to have.
But don't be intimidated by language barrier. Be adventurous. You can even ask those at your neighboring tables what they are having and if it is good. That's what I do in Croatia, Greece, Turkey, the Golden Triangle. Works every time.
You know, contrary to rumor, Parisians don't bite. :-)

P.S. The restos and bakeries that fellow chows and I recommend range from good to very good. For "divine" food, I am afraid you have to venture out of the rue Josephe de Maistre area.

[sadieapple]

Thank you for such wonderful and detailed recommendations! Can you recommend us to one or two "divines" (your favorites) outside the area that we could taxi or metro to? Also, you sound so knowledgeable, a market for some fresh fruit that we might be able to picnic with and pick up some Provence like table linens? We'll be there Thursday through Sunday. And yes, we are at the Terass! Your opinion on that would be appreciated too. Thank you again, we are older and don't want to waste a moment or a meal while we are there. I'm feeling quite relieved since your post.

[Parigi]

The fabulous Lepic market is about 5 minute walk from your hotel. It observes normal Paris market hours: from Tuesday to Saturday (lunch break from 1pm to 4pm, closing around 7:30pm to 8pm), and Sunday morning until noon. You can consult a map or Google map about the location. It is the part of rue Lepic between rue des Abbesses and Bld de Clichy.
You have the right idea: a tour of a market in France is just as enriching an experience as a museum visit.

There are many recommendations of restaurants and picnic possibilities on this board. Please use the search function to find some restaurant reviews with titles that have key words that appeal to you (we don't know anything about what you want except "divine". :-) ). When you come back with questions on specific restaurants or markets or cuisine, we will be able to share our experience with you much more effectively.

To start with, may I point out that excellent restaurants, of the "divine" ranking, tend to be closed for the weekend, esp Sunday. So Sunday is a good day for picnic. If you schedule your divine meal on Thursday or Friday, you will have a much wider choice.
One restaurant that is truly divine and eliminates your language problem is Spring, which has a young AMERICAN chef and an English-speaking staff. Reserve one month in advance.

Provençal fabrics. The store Les Olivades on 1 Rue de Tournon, in the St Germain des Près area. From the Terrass, you can take the direct metro line n°12 at Caulaincourt station and get out at Sèvre-Babylone.

The Terrass. Very nice terrace, duh, on the roof. Great view on Paris. I am personally unreasonably superstitious and would specify to the hotel that I don't want any room that has a view on the nevertheless very beautiful Montmartre cemetery. But that's just I.

[mangeur]

We have enjoyed some of our most memorable meals at La Table d'Eugene, downhill and north of Sacre Coeur. The mature waitress speaks and understands excellent English and is sweet and nurturing. Our last two visits suggested that the chef is at the top of his game.

[sadieapple]

Thanks, I checked it out and it sounds good. Do you have any recommendations for ordering?

[mangeur]

The seasonal menu changes monthly (as I remember). As starters, there will probably be a ravioli, always good, as is always the calamari when offered. There will be a pork, a beef and or veal, a fish main course, any of which are fine depending on the daily market and your preferences.