Bistro, Café, Restaurant, Brasserie?
What Is It?
When you go to France, you notice they have a large selection of places devoted to food. It seems to be an obsession with them. There are shops for cheese, fresh meats, cured meats, seafood, bread, pastry, wine, chocolate, tea, coffee, and gourmet groceries. Also, there are specialty food shops for olive oil, vinegar, spices, and even mustard. Then there are the open-air markets selling seasonal fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, and flowers. Food sights, smells, sounds, and tastes are all around you. You can't escape.
What is confusing is the differences between restaurants, bistros, brasseries, and cafés. Not every restaurant is a bistro, café, or brasserie, but every bistro, cafe and brasserie is a restaurant.
Restaurant is an all encompassing term. Restaurants range from casual neighborhood spots to haute cuisine. Classic French "Haute Cuisine" restaurants have refined decor, subdued lighting and intimate settings. They usually offer multi-course meals with seasonal ingredients and formal service. This type of formal restaurant is a quiet and slow dining experience, taking 3 to 4 hours.
There are 30 Michelin 3 star restaurants in France, 10 in Paris. These would be the top of the haute cuisine experience and exceedingly expensive. There are a total of 639 starred restaurants in France, ranking 1, 2, or 3 stars. Please note the distance between the tables and the decor in the Michelin 3 star Pierre Gagnaire below.
I have eaten in some of these starred places and the food, ambiance, and service have always been spectacular, but at a price, in euros and pretentiousness. In my old age, I have started looking for less formal, more affordable places. I am not alone. Some of these places were started by the talented young apprentices of the haute cuisine masters. These young people have the knowledge and talent to cooking at the haut cuisine level. Most important, they know the growers and suppliers of the very best produce and ingredients. When they venture out to open their own places they usually choose the bistro route.
The French Bistro originated in Paris in the early 1800's as a small modest restaurant or café that served simple, affordable meals and drinks. They were cozy neighborhood places, often family run, serving satisfying food, usually dishes from the regions where the owners originated. They became a staple of Parisian life, serving Steak Frites, Coq au Vin, Cassoulet, Salade Nicoise, Duck Confit, Boeuf Bourguignon, and other homestyle classic dishes.
In the early 1990's, a chef by the name of Yves Camdeborde arrived on the scene. He had trained and worked in several Michelin starred restaurants in Paris and had a mentor, Chef Christian Constant. He saw a need for high-quality yet affordable cuisine in a relaxed setting. Quality food for everyday people, not just the rich, in a casual environment that didn't take 3 to 4 hours to experience. This was his vision. He opened a small restaurant in the 14th arrondissement and did exactly that. It was called La Régalade.
He became the godfather of the Bistronomy Movement, which takes humble bistro dishes and enfuses them with the gastronomic techniques of fine dining. They also have one other element that makes them unique, a complete lack of greed. They don't need to make a million euros to be happy. They just want to create good food, perhaps with a bit of genius.
Yves Camdeborde's concept was soon pursued by several other early "bistronomy" stars, like Stéphane Jégo at Chez L'Ami Jean, Thierry Breton at Chez Michel, Thierry Faucher at L'Os à Moelle, Iñaki Aizpitarte at Le Chateaubriand, Bertrand Grébaut at Septime, and William Ledeuil at Ze Kitchen Galerie. The focus always on seasonal, local ingredients, innovative techniques with traditional recipes, and relaxed dining environments making this cuisine more accessible. Although, this movement started in the early 1990's, it wasn't until 2004 that food writer Sébastien Demorand gave it the name "Bistronomy".
The public embracement of this concept has forced the 3 star haute cuisine masters to look at making more casual, less expensive gastronomic adventures. Chef Christian Constant, who mentored several of these "young turks", was one of the first masters to move to this new style with his Café Constant. Joël Robuchon, who Gault & Millau called the "Chef of the Century", created a hybrid of this concept with his L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. His "workshop" featured an open kitchen with diners sitting around a counter directly interacting with chefs. The open kitchen concept was not new but its use by a Michelin 3 star chef was.
I have always been a fan of the bistro concept. I like it, the old form and new. In my travels, I have unwittingly fallen into some of these bistronomy locations, like Café Constant, Chez L'Ami Jean and Le Comptoir, to name a few.
There is a lot to be said for old school places like, Bistrot Paul Bert, Allard, Chez Robert & Louise and Lescure. They sometimes call themselves restaurants but I classify them as bistros. They have close seating, small kitchens, noisy ambiance, serve traditional French cuisine, and are usually open for lunch and dinner.
Cafés are different. On my first trip to Paris, on the first morning, we fell into Le Nemrod. It was a block from the apartment where we were staying. We were there just about every day on that trip at some time or the other. The fact they serve Poilâne sourdough bread and Berthillon ice cream was a definite plus.
Paris has a plethora of cafés. There is one on just about every corner. Cafés are open from about 7:00 AM to 10:00 to 11:00 PM serving beverages and light fare. Cafés are more than just what they serve. They are a cultural experience, a welcoming space for social interaction and people watching. They all have outside dining with the small tables and chairs facing outward. Throughout history they have attracted famous and not so famous writers, artists and thinkers.
Most cafés are charming picturesque places to rest, refuel, or pass the time. Sometimes the food is good, sometimes it's not, but that's not the point. It is close by, there is always a warm greeting, the coffee is strong and the wine is drinkable.
Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore are perhaps the two most famous cafés in France. Both are in Paris. Both date back to the 1800's. Both have a history of attracting famous artist, avant-garde thinkers, writers and philosophers, as well as people who want to be around them. They are both on corners of Boulevard Saint-Germain in the 6th arrondissement within a stone's throw of each other. I have walked past them hundreds of times, never once sitting down. Today, they are the definition of tourist magnet. Les Deux Magots recently did a study and found that 66% of their business was with international tourists. I don't need that even though I'm a tourist too.
It's the reason I have never ventured into Chez L'Ami Louis, the most famous bistro in the world. There are other places I would like to spend my money and time. These places are nice to look at but I prefer to have my feathers plucked in less traveled places.
Cafés focus on beverages, hot and cold, as well as light fare like pastries, salads, sandwiches, omelets, charcuterie, croque monsieurs, soups, cheeses, desserts and occasionally some heavier dishes like steak frites. Le Nemrod had all these and on our first trip to Paris, was a great spot to stop on the way back to our apartment for a late night café and Calvados (Apple Brandy from Normandy). Ah, I love those sensory memories.
Brasseries are different in a lot of respects than other restaurants. They started out as beer halls opened by Alsatians known for their beer-brewing traditions and hearty regional food. "Brasserie" is from the French word brasser meaning "to brew". They have evolved into more formal establishments serving a wide variety of food all day and late into the night. They serve a wide assortment of dishes, seafood, especially oysters, choucroute garnie (sauerkraut with pork and sausages), cheeses, salads, steak frites, roast chicken, confit, and other hearty fare. Their food options are more numerous and diverse than bistros or cafés. They also now have extensive wine lists and liquors.
In the past, they like the cafés attracted a group of famous writers, artists, and thinkers. Their decor moved more upscale. The service wasn't quite as formal as the top restaurants but they did have old established waiters who knew their local customers. Today some of them are tourist magnets too.
La Coupole, Le Dome, Brasserie Lipp and Le Select are the most famous of the old school French brasseries. My favorite is La Brasserie de I'Isle Saint-Louis. I fondly remember a dinner outside under the awning in the rain a few years ago. It was nice. That's the way it is with me. I remember the meal in a particular restaurant, not just the restaurant.
The problem with all these dining options in France and elsewhere is time and change. They change ownership, chefs retire, leases expire, landlords get greedy, chefs die, pandemics happen, and all the other things that occur over time. Sometimes if they are still there, they are not like they were when you first encountered them. That's sad but it happens and you have to move on to your next gastronomic memory. In France, there is always another one.
