Reviewed: Restaurant Maison Plisson, Paris

The inspiration for one of Paris’s most delicious new shops may surprise anyone who assumes that the French capital is the world’s global gastronomic citadel: New York City.

“When I lived in New York, I spent hours in the city’s fabulous food shops – places like Dean & Deluca, Citarella and Zabar’s,” says Delphine Plisson, who worked in fashion marketing before deciding to launch the ambitious project of opening a Parisian café-restaurant-delicatessen. “When I returned to Paris, I missed these shops, places that offered a selection of really great foodstuffs. For example, I don’t like supermarkets with 20 different olive oils – I’d rather go a shop that has three or four really superb ones. So my idea was to open a shop that showcases a carefully curated selection of the best foods in France.”

Plisson spent a year traveling all over l’Hexagone, sampling different cheeses, jams, charcuterie, oils and other products before opening her large, light and airy shop, La Maison Plisson, this June. Situated on the edge of the Marais, it quickly became a big success.

“It was only logical that we included an in-shop restaurant,” says Plisson, whose ex-husband, Bruno Doucet, runs three of the city’s best bistros – La Régalade (Paris 4th), La Régalade Saint-Honoré (1st) and La Régalade Conservatoire (9th) – agreed to act as a consultant for the shop’s modern French restaurant, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus light eats outside of meal hours, but doesn’t accept reservations.

The chalkboard menu changes regularly and runs to such imaginative contemporary comfort food as courgette gazpacho, marinated salmon, boulettes (meatballs) with bulgur and baby peas, and roast chicken with potato purée on Sundays. The do-not-miss dessert is the rice pudding, which is one of Doucet’s signature dishes and perhaps the best in Paris. Conveniently, the store and restaurant are open daily, which makes this as good an address for anyone looking to stock the kitchen of an Airbnb rental as it for those in search of picnic provisions or a great, reasonably priced, casual French meal over the weekend.

Restaurant Maison Plisson, 93 boulevard Beaumarchais, Paris 3rd. Tel: +33 1 71 18 19 09. Open daily for brunch, lunch and dinner.

Based in Paris, restaurant columnist Alexander Lobrano is the author of Hungry for France and Hungry for Paris.

From France Today magazine