Dining in Paris: Good to the Bone

 

Photo courtesy of Paris by Mouth

The decor might be spartan, but there's nothing bare about the food at Bones. Paris is going through its own hipster renaissance, much like the cosmopolitan scenes at home. We are just back from a trip where we took our time to discover the darker side of the City of Light, and we are happy to report that Bones is a must for your clients with a flare for adventure.

In Paris' 11th arrondissement (think the Brooklyn of Paris - gritty and sexy), amid streets flanked with youthful watering holes where Parisian hipsters drink wine and smoke cigarettes in the open air, is an unassuming storefront that looks more like an art gallery than a restaurant. Inside bare stone walls circle a wooden bar area packed to the top with French wine and liqueurs. The dining room seats no more than 50. A whole pig sat in a cast iron pan on the bar top. This is French dining for the 21st century.

Bones is helmed by Aussie chef James Henry, whose goal it was to create a restaurant with an attention to raw materials (hence, Bones). The menu is a no-choice tasting menu of approximately five courses (and a cheese course if you so choose), for approximately 40 Euro. What is not made on premises is locally sourced. The bread is sliced table side and the butter is warm, salty and addictive. The wine list…or should we say wine bible…is expansive and will leave your head spinning. You can use our patented trick - the guess and point - and we say you will be more than delighted.

Our meal began with a simple carpaccio of bracciola. This was followed with smoked oysters, a simple broth with chunks of tender pork, radish and mushrooms, asparagus with parmesan, duck breast on a bed of broccoli rabe, a selection of local French cheeses and a dessert of sorbet with raspberries and crunchy granola. 

Bones can be found at 43 rue Godefroy Cavaignac. It is best to book a few weeks in advance.