Paris has more than its usual share of beautiful, skinny people at the moment, thanks to the Fashion Week. Many of them are on a diet of coffee, cigarettes and salad with dressing on the side. Not me. I’m here to make up the calorie deficit.
My first stop was Frenchie To Go (FTG), the café/takeaway version of Frenchie, a tiny restaurant with a big reputation for hearty food and a mile-long waiting list. Priced more reasonably than the restaurant but offering the same spread of home-cured meats and fresh, seasonal produce, FTG is usually packed with a revolving population of locals. The meat is sourced from Ginger Pig, a Yorkshire chain of farms that supplies to top London butchers. Chef Grégory Marchand has worked in London and New York and you’ll find staples from both cities on the tiny menu here. I had my heart set on the Reuben, which is several flavourful slices of pastrami, tangy coleslaw and melted cheddar sandwiched between two slices of bread slathered in butter and toasted to a golden crisp.
I didn’t think this could be topped but I hadn’t bitten into the bacon scone yet. Crunchy bacon bits baked into a soft, chewy scone, it’s the perfect balance of sweet and salty. You will want for nothing else in the world while this scone lasts. And it won’t last very long.
Photographs: Frenchie To Go on Facebook, Takeeateasy.fr
Frenchie To Go, 9 rue du Nil, Paris
