The Era of 'Fine'
Is Paris losing some of its groove ?
A photo of a good-looking dish, generously plated, catches my eye on a friend’s Instagram story. It’s from a newly opened neighborhood restaurant getting industry traction. “How was it?!” I ask. “Fine 🤷🏻♀️”, I’m told. Technically solid, good ingredients, comfortable atmosphere, but unmemorable and underwhelming.
This one-word review seems to encapsulate much of the sentiment about dining out in a certain type of restaurant in Paris these days. I said it the other week after a fun but profoundly mid experience that even somen discerning friends had showered with praise; I said it a few weeks ago at another new bar-bistrot I had to review for work; and I hear it from Parisians in my circle who dine out regularly and have palates that align closely with mine. Christine Muhlke, the writer, consultant, and former executive editor of Bon Appétit, used a similar word to describe many of her experiences on a recent Paris visit: nice.
Perhaps it’s true elsewhere (Americans, Brits: chime in!), but surely in the city whose post-COVID culinary energy I have written about at length and have been excited to witness, there shouldn’t be quite such a proliferation of average.,“We are in an era of fine,” I concluded with Christine Doublet of Le Fooding fame and the whip-smart newsletter Skip the line. But why is this happening? She and I get into it.
Lindsey Tramuta: What’s going on, Christine? Has something changed in the last six months to make fine the new F&B trend?
Christine Doublet: I was thinking about this this morning after our conversation. If someone is opening a business, because a restaurant is, after all, a business, then they must be confident in the product they’re putting out, be it adventurous fine dining or a neighborhood bistro. They must have built a business plan, taste-tested, conducted friends & family meals and said to themselves, “this is great”, “this is going to knock people’s socks off” or “this is worth putting out into the world”. And so on the other side as a customer I’m expecting to be wowed or at the very least satisfied by the experience. But I guess I’ve been wondering if, given how hard the restaurant business has been of late (including but not limited too an exponential increase in restaurant closures due notably to rising prices), maybe business owners are actually aiming for fine instead? If people are actually, purposefully opening safe restaurants?
LT: This is a really interesting point. It feels plausible and yet: is the point of getting into the food business to run something safe when the very real risk is that you don’t inspire return visits? Maybe these establishments aren’t thinking that far ahead. That, in itself, is an issue. Opening up and doing “their best”, even if mediocre, is a short-sighted strategy. And some of the places that are fine are run by chefs or industry people who probably don’t see their ventures as aiming for average. Given how little people earn in this industry on balance, isn’t it a self-fulfilling prophecy?
CD: So if they aren’t aiming for average, then have we become too difficult? Neither of us is the average diner. We go out to eat A LOT and to A LOT of amazing places, so if these places aren’t aiming for fine, if this is what they think is their best, and if they are generally functioning and getting decent reviews and full dining rooms, then are we the problem?
I actually think that despite eating out so much I’m actually pretty easy to please, I just want the food to be tasty, the service to be warm, and to feel something, anything, when I go out to eat (side bar: this makes me think of my favorite Liz Lemon quote). I will add that none of these fine places we are talking about actually serve bad food; everything is cooked well, properly portioned, well seasoned enough. It’s just I can’t think of a single defining characteristic that makes one place stand out compared to another.
LT: I did wonder if this was an us, not them, problem. But then again, plenty of friends in my circle who don’t necessarily dine out as much have also shrugged after certain experiences. Again, as you said: not bad at all, just not memorable. I wonder if it’s directly connected to a dining category. Fine dining can’t really afford to be complacent. I’ve had meals at Michelin-caliber tables that weren’t super memorable, for various reasons, but nonetheless well above fine! Is this a midrange affliction, you think?
CD: I don’t know if this answers the fine-dining question exactly, but I do think the price and the restaurant’s positioning play into the experience and your expectations. To me, a fine fine dining restaurant is not fine, it’s bad. If you describe your establishment as fine dining and have the price point (and dare I say Michelin stars) to back it up, then you better be delivering on the plate. You can’t coast on fine. Fine, in that context, is inadequate. So yes, I would generally say that here, fine refers to mid-range restaurants with a 25-35 € lunch menu and a 50-60 € à la carte dinner.
Continuing on the price conversation: the general population is being more careful with how they spend their money as prices have risen in pretty much all aspects of life, so I guess that’s what makes me the most uncomfortable about all these fine restaurants. I want to say to people, “SAVE YOUR MONEY! GO HERE INSTEAD!” What do you think? Like if we had endless amounts of money to spend on restaurants, then maybe a fine meal here and there wouldn’t be so offensive.
LT: Absolutely. My bill came to 100+€ at one of the fine bistro experiences I had recently— for one glass of wine, one non-alcoholic drink, and a smattering of very average shared plates. It stung, and I felt instantly dissatisfied. My guess is that the reason we’re seeing coffee shops proliferate (and sometimes directly across the street from one another) is that there’s lower overhead for the owners and lower spend required for consumers. Is a 5 or 6€ flat white cheap? No. But when someone is budgeting and considering whether they meet friends at a coffee shop versus a bar or bistro, the calculus is vite fait. It’s the same reason I see young people flocking to N.G.E.s ( Seb Emina’s idea of the nearest generic establishment) for super cheap beers at happy hour. It’s what they can afford when they want to be outside.
One chef-consultant friend did offer a different perspective on some of these average places opening and coasting: the owners don’t think to ask for help. They may not be testing recipes thoroughly, they’re in a rush to open, and their circle of industry friends aren’t necessarily telling them the truth. Could that be at play here?
CT: Regarding the rush to open, definitely. I feel like once you invest, once you spend months on construction, at a certain point you need to open and start making money. Whether industry friends aren’t telling the truth, I feel like that goes back to the restaurant closures/rising prices/lack of staff mentioned earlier. It hasn’t been an easy few years for restaurants, so maybe people feel they need to be overly supportive and are not actually giving constructive criticism. Also, a lot of the places that are opening come from “the former sous-chef of so and so”, and “the wine girl from that other place,” so the people they are expecting to give them feedback are their former colleagues and peers. It must be tough to do that if you’re all trying to be supportive of one other in this difficult context.
But feedback is so so precious, Friends & Family (in the U.S. at least) exists for this very reason, but in France, F&F is mostly an excuse to invite press and influencers pre-opening in order to get the article or post you think you need to get clients through the door. On the other hand, I’ve also been to a few places recently that have opened and are specifically not contacting the press or doing any PR so they can have at least one or two months as a trial run to work out kinks. So it could be possible that a lot of these fine places that we’ve been to are actually just going through opening growing pains and are going to get better.
Do you think that’s possible? That a place can drastically improve post-opening? Foodwise, servicewise? Or are the actual concepts of these fine restaurants flawed to begin with?
LT: That’s certainly possible. This is very true in fine dining; why shouldn’t it be true in other categories? The issue is enticing people to return to give a place a second chance. That’s hard to bank on, especially in this economy and with so much choice! People make up their minds after one meal.
CD : I’d like to end on a positive note, though. One advantage of this sea of fine is how much more individual and unique restaurants stand out. Someplace like Pochana (12m², 12 seats, 1 chef, 1 somm, natural wines and homey Thaï food) seems so much more special in comparison to the one millionth basic French neo-bistro that I’ve been to. To me, Pochana is the perfect example of what a good restaurant should be: a distinct point of view; a clear message (as stated on their Instagram “Natural wine and Thai-ish dishes”, and that is exactly what you get); a short tasty menu (menus are often too long!!); an equally short but equally tasty wine list (due to the size of the restaurant they can only stock a certain amount of wine at a time but working within this limited framework works to their advantage, they’re curating instead of inundating); a good playlist; an affable server (Rémy, the somm and co-owner with his wife May, who’s in the kitchen); dimmed lighting (lighting is SO SO SO IMPORTANT in restaurants and is so often too bright or too white); and of course vibes for days (while a concept is easy to replicate, vibes are inexplicable and are the equivalent of a magic potion, it’s only when all elements are mixed together in the correct unmeasurable amounts that you achieve PEAK ambiance).
To me, all of this equals someplace that leaves a mark and leaves you wanting more. I don’t know if you’d be able to name a place in Paris (recently!) that spoke to you?
“While a concept is easy to replicate, vibes are inexplicable and are the equivalent of a magic potion. It’s only when all elements are mixed together in the correct unmeasurable amounts that you achieve PEAK ambiance.” — Christine Doublet
© @widowspeaking
LT: YES! I loved Pochana! I’m due for a return visit. This is exactly how I feel when I eat at Kubri, La Joie, Trâm 130, Ama Siam, Comptoir De Vie, and even Chez Georges (I realize, it is not new! But it is a best-in-class example of what you’re describing.) Each offers something different, culinarily speaking, but consistency is part of their success. Some nail the right balance of spice and layered flavors; others (like the bistro) stick to a classic rulebook and go hard on the service and environment, which too many upstarts can only approximate in pastiche. Maybe it’s the revival bistros that are the weak link at the moment? The umpteenth neo-bistro with sharing plates that leave you hungry? Either way, here’s hoping this will be more of a phase of fine, rather than a full era!
CD: In the time we’ve been going back and forth, I tried something new and promising: Dents de Loup, a butcher shop that serves food like an insane saucisse-purée and housemade charcuterie. So maybe things are looking up?
Croisons les doigts!
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