My 2nd Favorite Place in Paris

Dinner @ Le Coupe Chou

Le Coupe Chou is probably my 2nd favorite place to eat in Paris, for the same reasons Willi’s Wine Bar is my favorite. I’m sure if you tried, you could find ‘better’ food in Paris, or better ‘ambiance’ or better prices. But I’m talking about the ‘Paris experience’. The whole package. First of all, I really enjoy dining where locals enjoy dining. That said, once a place like Willi’s Wine Bar or Le Coup Chou get over 1,000 Facebook ‘Likes’, it becomes pretty hard not to run into someone from New Jersey or Chicago or Milwaukee. But the fact that locals certainly keep going there, helps me feel like i’m eating where locals want to eat. Obviously, Parisians can chose from literally thousands of restaurants to eat at, so when they choose someplace to eat and continue to frequent it, I would argue that it’s pretty good and it’s the longevity to make it an institution in Paris. And if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere…

So now, Le Coup Chou, I first went there back in the 90’s while I was traveling to Paris on business with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group. We were connecting the Chicago & Paris exchanges and it was my job to help with the technology side of that. My friend Benoit introduced me to the place. For many years, i couldn’t even remember the name of it in order to go back, but something knocked my memory loose and I finally remember it.

In order to find it, if you feel like you’re walking down a dark alley and don’t know if you’re going in the right direction, or feel like you’re going to get mugged, you’re going in the right direction. It’s perfectly safe in St. Germain (my very favorite neighborhood in Paris). So don’t frett .

The food is ALWAYS great – not that I’ve been ther so many times, but the food is always great. It’s a type of place you ‘imagine’ when you think of dining in Paris in a typical French place that is so old, it probably pre-dates the USA.

It’s late, so I’m going to leave you with pictures from the meal and promise to try to get the rest of our great (and not-so-great) meals on there. Enjoy.