ABOUT

“How can one grasp the essence, the momentum, the vigor of the bistro? Probably by catching it off guard, avoiding speaking on its behalf, and instead delivering its choral song. Just as it is. In its hubbub, its arrhythmias, its multifaceted speech, and its gentle madness. Its constant disruption, its joyful imbalance. Here is the world of Paul Bert—briny and sanguine, innovative and classic—left to itself in what amounts to more than a book: an outpouring of bursts and colors. Beware, there will be clinking glasses, drinking, singing, shucking oysters, ringing angelus bells, and endless nights… (this has been going on for twenty years now, which is to say it’s just the beginning).”

François Simon, food critic and epicurean