Just when I thought Parisian brasseries couldn’t get any worse, I went to dinner at Le Dome de Villiers, a popular place in the 17th that always served good steak tartare and Gillardeau oysters in season. The friend who’d suggested it also mentioned that it had just had a glowing write-up in Le Figaro following a complete remodeling, but nothing prepared me for what I found when I stepped inside—high-backed, crushed-red-velvet chairs, halogen lamps everywhere, and a decor so stunningly ugly it took my breath away. The recipe for this disaster: Mix a lot of inspiration from the Costes brothers fashion restaurants with a major dose of Las Vegas and a dash of Miami Beach. Then stand back and scream. There was still steak tartare on the menu, but it had become a pallid patty compared to what they used to serve and was sharing the bill with such tediously trendy dishes as carpaccio of beef with Parmesan shavings, haricots verts with mozzarella and tomato, and tuna steak with bacon. Sigh. Parisian brasseries are in seriously bad shape. There are only a handful I’d even think of going to anymore and then mostly because they serve late or are open on the weekend. Both of the city’s big brasserie chains—Groupe Flo, which includes La Coupole, Bofinger, Julien and a flock of other famous old brasseries; and Les Freres Blanc, with Au Pied de Cochon, La Lorraine, and Le Procope—have both recently changed hands, and I’d been hoping that new management might resurrect these much-loved Paris institutions. Wrong. Out of perhaps a dozen brasserie meals during the past six months, only one or two were even half acceptable.
The only decent brasserie left in Paris is Le Stella, which still serves very good steak tartare and a nice sole meuniere and has some real atmosphere to boot. Other places I’d make an exception for include Le Vaudeville, as much for the Art Deco dining room and the crowd as the food; Le Balzar, because I’m sentimental and have been going here for years; Chez Jenny, which does a serviceable choucroute garni; Le Train Bleu, for its drop-dead Belle Epoque decor and gigot (roast lamb), which is served tableside; and Le Terminus Nord, if I was hungry before or after a train to London or Brussels. I can only hope that some smart restaurateur is plotting to save the brasserie from its current brush with mediocrity. Perhaps it will be whomever wins the concession, currently in competition, for the new brasserie to be built in the back of the Opera Garnier, a brilliant location if ever there were one. Stay tuned for the opening, next spring.
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