It is a Friday evening in autumn in Paris's 20th arrondissement. By 7:30 pm, the small room is packed: tables full of friends happy to be together; further back, regulars for whom the concept needs no explanation. Here, as in many restaurants in France, there is no traditional menu in the evening, but about 10 dishes to share. Everyone starts with a small, empty plate, taking up helpings from the beautifully laid serving dishes, which are placed one after the other in the center of the table. Sea bass ceviche with leche de tigre, leek spaghetti, oyster mushrooms with parsley, stuffed cabbage, and so on.
Since it opened a decade ago, Le Jourdain has stayed the course and kept its aficionado clientele. Following in the footsteps of chef Iñaki Aizpitarte's Le Dauphin, it was one of the first restaurants in Paris to offer this type of dining experience in the evening. "I've always been frustrated by having to choose at restaurants. I had just come back from several years in Barcelona, where the tapas culture is very strong, and I loved the idea of having a meal and tasting lots of different things," explained founder Jean-Baptiste Jay-Gallo.
Aux Deux Amis, opened by David Vincent-Loyola in 2010, provided the impetus, followed by Clamato. These new bistros were unique in that they were created by chefs, said Christine Doublet, co-director of Le Fooding guide. They offered carefully selected natural wines, served with elaborate, inventive plates instead of the classic charcuterie, cheese and vegetables found in wine bars.
"When Bertrand Grébaut and Théophile Pourriat, following their restaurant Septime, opened Clamato, they entrusted the kitchen to a real chef, Erica Archambault. They wanted a more relaxed place, open every night of the week, where you could eat really well and not just have a drink," she said. In a similar vein, Australian chef James Henry created a dining bar in his restaurant Bones, adjoining the dining room reserved for his tasting menu, where several people could come without a reservation to drink wine and share a variety of original, tasty dishes.
This sharing culture was already very strong in British restaurants in the early 2000s, notes Elodie Piège, wife of chef Jean-François Piège and general director of the Maison Piège Group. "It developed with fusion cuisine and places like Zuma, in London; with chefs who had traveled to Asia, Spain, and South America or who came from the Middle East, like Yotam Ottolenghi. It took a lot longer to gain a foothold in France."
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