List Worthiness: Le Procope
In my ongoing quest to get through Mireille Guiliano’s Top 20 To Dos in The City of Lights I take us to to-do #7, “enjoy the towering plateau de fruits de mer seafood platter at Le Procope”. Hmm…it is here that the two of us part ways.
The charming exterior in the photo, is indeed said restaurant, the oldest in Paris. Opened in 1686 by a Sicilian of all things (could be one of my relatives, actually!) Francesco Procopio, this establishment became the place for fashionable men to drink that “exotic” drink, coffee, which had only been served in taverns up to this point. In 1689, Comédie Français opened up across the street and Le Procope became the theatre crowd’s hangout. The restaurant’s history is long and filled with many famous patrons: Rousseau, Voltaire, Ben Franklin, John Paul Jones and Thomas Jefferson all thought and argued deep thoughts over dinner here.
My Le Procope experience didn’t include any deep thoughts–they crop up occasionally for me but not on this particular night. It was my birthday and all my daughters were able to join me in Paris to celebrate. I walked by this place all the time and was so charmed by its fairy tale quality. It feels as though you are in a private salon from another time. You really can sense the history here. We sat in a lovely room on the second floor and aside from the setting being memorable for me, the real memory I took from the night was sharing a bottle of Champagne for the first time with all my daughters, none of which were legal drinking age in the states, and yet here we were sharing a bit of the bubbly in Paris. I was beyond happy.
The reason I hold back on suggesting that you dine here is because the food felt “tired” to me. There is traditional French cuisine which I love and then there is just fancy for the sake of being fancy and expensive. Which is what I found to be the case on this particular night. We four Poulin women are not big eaters and we didn’t drink endless glasses of champagne (we’re capable, we just didn’t) and our bill was crazy. But the money wasn’t the issue either. I felt it was a lot of money for not a lot of quality, and we would have been better served going someplace else. I pass my experience along for those of you heading over to Paris and are looking forward to putting together a plan of fabulous places to eat while you are there. You might consider lunch or perhaps a drink so you can peek inside and feel all the ghosts rattling around but if I were you I would keep walking a few blocks farther and tuck yourself into perhaps, Ze Kitchen Galerie (rue des Grands Augustins).
Meals here are an art form. Make each one count.
Additional information: Le Procope, Ze Kitchen Galerie
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