Travel Guide: Paris Wine Bars

Writer Jane Sigal hit every arrondissement in Paris in search of culinary brilliance. Here, five Paris wine bars with fantastic food and amazing bottles.

Mozzarella with Summer Squash and Olive Puree

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Tarragon Crème Fraîche

Paris Wine Bars: Aux Deux Amis

With traditional cafés disappearing in Paris, this retro-fabulous 1950s wine bar, with its Formica-and-copper bar, is a heartening throwback. David Loyola, an alum of Le Chateaubriand, has created a natural-wine list with plenty of quirky bottles (like a sparkling rosé from the Loire's Grolleau grape) and a brief menu with simple, superfresh dishes, like buffalo mozzarella with zucchini and olive puree.

Paris Wine Bars: Coinstot Vino

At Guillaume Dupré's bare-bones space in a 19th-century covered arcade, the wines are natural, from such cult producers as Eric Pfifferling, and the chef cooks like a grandmère who's never heard of a supermarket (try the pan-roasted chicken with tarragon crème fraîche) The 14.50-euro prix fixe lunch is an especially good deal.

Paris Wine Bars: Dans Les Landes

Bracing country wines from small appellations in southwest France (Irouléguy and Marcillac, for instance) are the specialty of Julien Duboué's sprawling Basque café near the rue Mouffetard market. The tall blackboard menu is filled with great dishes that are served all day, a rarity in Paris. One highlight: the fried tapas, including soft-centered polenta bars flecked with smoked duck and magnificent pig's-feet nuggets.

Paris Wine Bars: Jeanne A

Frédéric Hubig-Schall favors Burgundy, Rhône and Loire wines in magnums and jeroboams at this chic épicerie-bar decorated with crates of round zucchini, olive paste and cookbooks—all for sale. (Wines by the glass and in 750-milliliter carafes are also available.) The foie gras terrine is ultrarich, and a constantly spinning rotisserie turns out perfectly crispy chicken and duck.

Paris Wine Bars: Le Verre Volé

At this pioneering natural-wine shop and bar, you can still buy a bottle off the shelf and walk it to the Canal Saint-Martin for a picnic. But now that Cyril Bordarier serves daily market specials like seared cod with baby artichokes—alongside his regular menu of charcuterie and sausages—there's an excellent reason to hang around.

Jane Sigal is a contributing editor to F&W. She is working on a book about Le Cirque.

Video: Ray Isle Talks French Wines

Published October 2011