It’s nearly inconceivable to talk about the Paris dining scene without mentioning Gregory Marchand and his ascent to stardom on the rue du Nil in the 2nd arrondissement. That and the herculean effort required to score a reservation at Frenchie, Marchand’s contemporary bistro and claim to fame. Fortunately, his two other outposts provide a taste of his talent and ingenuity without the attendant stress of having to book: Frenchie wine bar and Frenchie-To-Go, his latest venture.
I’ve been reluctant to join on the Frenchie bandwagon for several reasons but mostly because of the outsize hype and the arcane booking system – there is by no means a dearth of supremely good restaurants in this city so why jump through hoops for this one in particular? I was also turned off by this sort of groupie-fanaticism around the chef himself. But when I learned that his coffee shop-cum-deli counter (Frenchie-To-Go) would offer Ruebens, lobster rolls, fish n’ chips (with line-caught merlu from Saint-Jean-de-Luz, my favorite fishing town in Basque country) and a bevy of breakfast options served all day, my tune started to change. It didn’t hurt that Marchand’s upmarket diner had secured the imprimatur of some of the food…
