At lunch it seems generally to be packed. I walked down rue Mouffetard on Tuesday and arrived there just a little after 1:00 in the afternoon with my paraplui since it had been raining all morning (still was as I wrote the first part of this entry, sitting at a table in the restaurant at 5:00 ). Only two seats were left when I arrived, and I was given a choice. One was right up against the open door which I thought was cool since I could people watch as I ate - but it turned out to be not so much "cool" as too cold so they moved me to the back on a comfy thin cushion on a bench next to two tourist Paris newbies from Jerusalem.
The server/owner Hendricka, when asked, recommended the dinde - "saute de dinde a la citronnelle - riz" which was spectacular. She was right. The sauce was aromatic, tasty, memorable - the kind that you can't help finishing and even sopping up with the remaining riz and some bread - even if not hungry.
Afterwards, as the restaurant emptied out, I stayed in my seat for an allonge. (a large and diluted coffee a la America).
Then the young woman who works at the counter in the afternoon showed up and since it was still pretty nasty outside, I decided to take an empty table up front. Actually, by then all of the tables were empty. And with my phone plugged in and my hotspot turned on my computer can get the internet, so I sat there with a Ricard pastis - one of my favorite drinks, and then a second Ricard - typing away and feeling like a local and a writer.
Others walked in for a coffee or a wine, and talked to the young woman, or perused one of the local papers sitting on the bar with pamphlets about nearby theatrical performances and the like.
Others walked in for a coffee or a wine, and talked to the young woman, or perused one of the local papers sitting on the bar with pamphlets about nearby theatrical performances and the like.
The small woman with the well toned body and the well coiffed and banged red fuzzy hair was back. She was there Sunday when I walked in for lunch too late and they served me with a plate of cheese and charcuterie anyway (very nice of them). and the somewhat scuzzy man with the 8 oclock shadow, a belly apparent behind his sports type casual shirt and little earrings - he was also back. She treats him as if he were a boyfriend with her giggling and touching and laughing too loud. I'm thinking he is not. But they are apparently here often at the same time.
I came back yesterday for a quick bite on my way for a get together with friend Monique at Verse Tourjours. It is very pleasant to be in such a warm and welcoming place and even more so as it becomes more familiar to me as a once or twice a year regular.. I could do this a couple of days a week if I lived here. I keep filling in the spaces in my picture of life as a pretend resident of Paris in general, and this little neighborhood in particular - the neighborhood that Hemingway lived and wrote in during his earliest Paris days and wrote of in "Moveable Feast." My apartment this time is just around the corner from his apartment on rue Cardinal Lemoine and down the block from where he wrote on rue Descartes.
Yesterday I walked in to Verre a Pied only intending to eat an entree and a wine - but when Claude told me the kitchen was still open if I ordered quickly - and Hendrika came out to get my order, I could;t help having a second chance at the dinde. It didn't disappoint.
I have loved this place for years but never until recently understood the ebb and flow of its daily life - from the crowds at lunch and dinner to the regulars and walk ins who turn it into a pleasant place to relax during the afternoon
My friend Lynn - who, sadly and surprisingly passed away this year after a hitherto successful battle with cancer on and off for over 15 years - wrote a wonderful description of the restaurant two years ago. It was published in friend Richard Nahem's "Eyepreferparis" blog. There is no way I could top her description - so with due deference to her and the talent she showed in her writing of it and to him for publishing it - here is Lynn's wonderful piece from 2015: (SEE www.ipreferparis.net for Richard's wonderful daily blog featuring his insightful Paris articles, his tours, etc.)
Lynn is back in Paris and wrote today's Lunch with Lynn.
Yesterday I walked in to Verre a Pied only intending to eat an entree and a wine - but when Claude told me the kitchen was still open if I ordered quickly - and Hendrika came out to get my order, I could;t help having a second chance at the dinde. It didn't disappoint.
I have loved this place for years but never until recently understood the ebb and flow of its daily life - from the crowds at lunch and dinner to the regulars and walk ins who turn it into a pleasant place to relax during the afternoon
My friend Lynn - who, sadly and surprisingly passed away this year after a hitherto successful battle with cancer on and off for over 15 years - wrote a wonderful description of the restaurant two years ago. It was published in friend Richard Nahem's "Eyepreferparis" blog. There is no way I could top her description - so with due deference to her and the talent she showed in her writing of it and to him for publishing it - here is Lynn's wonderful piece from 2015: (SEE www.ipreferparis.net for Richard's wonderful daily blog featuring his insightful Paris articles, his tours, etc.)
September 29, 2015
Lunch with Lynn/Under 20 Eats- La Verre a Pied
Lynn is back in Paris and wrote today's Lunch with Lynn.
How would you like to return to the days of the French Revolution while eating lunch--hear the horses galloping by, watch a blacksmith making horseshoes? Le Verre a Pied (The Stem Glass), a tiny, very old world café/restaurant right on the narrow cobblestoned rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter can offer you that. Claude and Hendrika have owned the enchanted place since 1983, the two of them working as a solitary team to bring you marvelous French dishes, different daily. They bought it in 1983 from Madame Paulette who bought it in 1947 from her father who bought it in 1919. It became a café about 1870, during the French Commune, and before that (here comes the Revolution) it was a long passageway at the end of which was a forge, where the kitchen is now (time to use your imagination).
Richard and I and a Chicago friend, Michel Kurlander,had lunch there on my birthday two weeks ago (not a pivotal birthday but one that seemed appropriately symbolized by the French Revolution). Hendrika makes the various plats each day –but no appetizer, simple fare is simple fare --and a variety of desserts that are so French you think you are having dinner with Parisian friends on a Sunday chez eux --and you really are. I had the rabbit in mustard sauce; Richard and Michel had the lamb stew. The rabbit and the lamb were deliciously tender and the sauces so divine your tongue can never forget, leading you back to the same dish over and over again.
You get homemade desert with the formule plat/dessert, and we could choose chocolate cake, crème brulée, or fromage blanc with raspberry coulis. Which one do you think I chose? Right! Richard had crème brulée and Michel the fromage blanc. We waited a bit longer than usual until suddenly out of the kitchen/forge stepped Hendrika with my chocolate cake and one
lovely discreet candle (I heard the horses gallop by!) And it was a huge piece of cake, the size of a map, French obviously.
Magnificent. I made my wish, blew out the candle in one blow (sooo talented) and voila!
The wish of course has come true.
If you are wandering down rue Mouffetard, the oldest market street in Paris, do stop in at Le Verre à Piedand step back in time. Say hello to Claude and Hendrika for us. Let’s all be part of the food revolution. “Ah ! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!”
La Verre a Pied
118 rue Mouffetard, 75005
Metro: Censier- Daubenton
Open Tuesday to Saturday 9AM-9PM
Sunday 9:30AM -4PM
Tel. +33 (1) 43 31 15 72
Richard and I and a Chicago friend, Michel Kurlander,had lunch there on my birthday two weeks ago (not a pivotal birthday but one that seemed appropriately symbolized by the French Revolution). Hendrika makes the various plats each day –but no appetizer, simple fare is simple fare --and a variety of desserts that are so French you think you are having dinner with Parisian friends on a Sunday chez eux --and you really are. I had the rabbit in mustard sauce; Richard and Michel had the lamb stew. The rabbit and the lamb were deliciously tender and the sauces so divine your tongue can never forget, leading you back to the same dish over and over again.
You get homemade desert with the formule plat/dessert, and we could choose chocolate cake, crème brulée, or fromage blanc with raspberry coulis. Which one do you think I chose? Right! Richard had crème brulée and Michel the fromage blanc. We waited a bit longer than usual until suddenly out of the kitchen/forge stepped Hendrika with my chocolate cake and one
lovely discreet candle (I heard the horses gallop by!) And it was a huge piece of cake, the size of a map, French obviously.
Magnificent. I made my wish, blew out the candle in one blow (sooo talented) and voila!
The wish of course has come true.
If you are wandering down rue Mouffetard, the oldest market street in Paris, do stop in at Le Verre à Piedand step back in time. Say hello to Claude and Hendrika for us. Let’s all be part of the food revolution. “Ah ! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!”
La Verre a Pied
118 rue Mouffetard, 75005
Metro: Censier- Daubenton
Open Tuesday to Saturday 9AM-9PM
Sunday 9:30AM -4PM
Tel. +33 (1) 43 31 15 72
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