Word: bistro
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Early in the century, France counted roughly 300,000 cafes for 38 million inhabitants, according to Robert Henry, head of the cafe section of the restaurateurs union. Today, he laments, the number has dropped to 62,000 for a population of 58 million. Over the past decade, bistros have gone out of business at the rate of 3,500 a year. "Each time a cafe closes, a little bit of liberty and democracy disappears," says Henry, a 71-year-old who was suckled in his parents' Val-d'Oise cafe, north of Paris. From his bistro, Le Petit Poucet, Henry...
...many French, no other institution so embodies their civilization as le zinc. Today the counter of the typical cafe-bistro is rarely made of zinc -- metal alloys and Formica are easier to clean -- but the rituals remain. The owner who shakes hands with the regulars. The blue-uniformed laborer downing his half-liter of beer. The war veteran nursing his Calvados-laced coffee. In villages, farmers gather after a day's harvest for a shot of pastis and a dice game. In cities, shopgirls pause for orange juice and a croque monsieur, the grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich that...
...Generation MacDo, saw a commercial for "McCopters," she dragged her mother to the McDonald's across from the Austerlitz train station. Until 1989, the spot was occupied by a vast cafe, the Arc-en-Ciel. But Marie Biondi, Shannon's mother, does not mourn the disappearance of the bistro. "We feel safe here," she says. "We avoid the neighborhood drunk, and the toilets are clean." Nearby, medical student Christophe Icard, 21, converses with a companion over chocolate ice cream. Cafes are "expensive and old-fashioned," he says...
...land of Gauloises, where 40% of the populace lights up, a law that went into effect this month restricting smoking in most public places led to predictions of angry bistro battles. Instead, hostile encounters have been rare and the ban is shaping up as an exercise in politesse. At a crowded pizzeria on the Champs Elysees, a Parisian woman puffed away peacefully until a man at the next table blurted, "Excuse me. Can you please put out your cigarette? You are disturbing me." As the man later explained, "Before this law was instituted, I never dared to ask anyone...
Gordon Hammersley, Hammersley's Bistro, Tremont St. "Oysters on the half shell with as much champagne as we can get in. Turkey with a myriad of vegetables--turnips brussels sprouts my favorite, lots of rutabaga I love Rutabaga gizzards of turkey made into confit--braised in duck and goosefeet. cranberry sauce with scotch bonnet hot peppers and gravy--in the restaurant business we call it sauce, at home we call it gravy...