Paris Shortcut

Anyone who wants to eat at Paris’s restaurants du moment either has to plan the entire trip down to the last detail with online reservations weeks before departure, or be prepared to stand in line among the Parisians for hours. But there are shortcuts they won’t tell you about, food editor at large Marjan Ippel discovered.

Name L’Avant Comptoir
Type Basque tapas bar, open continuously from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Service Chaotic in the Parisian way
Cuisine Basque tapas
Interior Zinc bar, no chairs, wall covered with wine bottles
Extra The mountain of butter with an inviting butter knife and bread basket on the bar
Price $$

Yves Camdeborde
Le Comptoir du Relais, run by legendary chef Yves Camdeborde, is the kind of place for which I have already stood in line among the Parisian locals for roughly an hour (or two), shifting from one leg to the other.

Since then, the bistronomy pioneer has built an entire empire under the name L’Avant Comptoir at L’Odéon. Perhaps to ease the pain for those waiting, by giving them the chance to eat and/or drink something at Le Comptoir first?

There is also a queue here of decidedly Parisian proportions.

But by now there is a queue of Parisian proportions for those ‘Avantjes’ too. From Crêperie and De La Mer to Du Marché. The latter is entirely dedicated to pork, Camdeborde’s favorite animal, which also features on the logo.

Plastic curtain
At the crêperie, the line moves fastest. But before resigning yourself to a meal of pancake batter: walk through the crêperie to the back, through the plastic curtain, and suddenly you find yourself in a tapas bar.

Dozens of cards with photos of dishes priced between 4 and 18 euros hang from the ceiling. On the zinc (the zinc bar) sits a mountain of butter with an inviting butter knife in it. Next to it is a basket of bread that is replenished throughout the evening, plus jars of pickles.

On the zinc bar sits a mountain of butter with an inviting butter knife.

While you wait for your order amid the Parisian chaos, you can already help yourself to that wonderful hand-churned Bordier butter and a glass of vin naturel from one of the bottles waiting in a bucket. This is happiness, you think to yourself.

That happiness grows even greater when the anchovies from Palamo (6 euros) on pain cristal (a kind of house-baked Basque breadstick) are placed on the zinc.

Avoid peak hours
The kitchen is open continuously from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m., so avoid peak hours if possible for the best result. And don’t be surprised if Yves himself appears behind the bar.

Image: Marjan Ippel