Coffee Parisien

Our Adventurous niece is an au pair in Paris for the year. She was kind enough to send this special report, the first of its kind outside of Berkshire County... as a matter of fact, outside of the U.S.! So, without further ado, live and on the ground, straight from the trenches of Paris, France:

Coffee Parisien
46, Rue de Sablonville, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
"BACONCHEESEBURGER"
14 euros (roughly $21.70 American)

As a fairly picky American living in Paris, I found out, very quickly, where to find the best burger Paris has to offer. It's a joke among the French that American food is fast food. I can't help but object, but must acknowledge, at the same time, that the Frogs are half right. We invented Hungry Man dinners (ask the proprietor of this blog for scary sodium information about my favorite frozen turkey meal), McDonald's, airplane food... need I go on? The burger, I believe, technically wasn't one of our own inventions. We just figured out how to mass produce and effectively market the (soy) cow, if you will.

So because canard and frites or jambon and something scary can't be eaten every night of the week, we must, as humans, resort to something more familiar and basic. And what is more pleasant or comforting than a big slab of ground beef surrounded by bread and hopefully cheese, ketchup, and spicy mustard.

Coffee Parisien provides just that. I've eaten there multiple times and I believe I almost always order the BACONCHEESEBURGER. It's delicious. I order it "à point" (pronounced a pwan) which is medium rare. I think it's generally been a technically good medium rare, by most American restaurant standards. The restaurant itself stands testament to the sort of "Camelot" image of America. JFK owns the place; his and Jackie's photos differentiate the men's and women's bathrooms. You can order milkshakes (which frankly, aren't worth the 7 euros). The placemat of the restaurant is a photo diagram of all of the American Presidents.



Trendy is really the best word to describe the place. It's always full on the weekends and Mr. Jean Sarkozy has been spotted there. The Coffee Parisien in the 6th arrondissement is frequented by Hollywood types. Well, kind of Euro-Hollywood types. Read: Diane Kruger. But the best way to describe Coffee Parisien is simply as a French diner that's trying to be American-ish. "Quelconque." (Plain, ordinary)


My BACONCHEESEBURGER arrived on a lightly toasted sesame-seed bun with lettuce, tomatoes, and onion. The bacon used at Coffee Parisien is more like ham-con, which suits a burger well. The cheese is cheddar. It was accompanied by the lovely "hashbrown" that you see above.

The specific time in question, ie, when this photo was taken, I had forced my visiting mother and sister to travel to Neuilly for a cheeseburger, because I knew they would be disappointed in one they acquired anywhere else. Unfortunately, because my mother and sister are pains in the ass, they both asked for modifications to their meals: they wanted mashed potatoes. If I've learned one thing about France, it's this: never ask for anything that's not on the menu. Never try to change anything. If you really want the salad, but are allergic to pickles, choose something else. If you make them accommodate you, they will usually do so happily. But in making a change, something will likely go terribly wrong. Equilibrium is lost. The world becomes a spinning vortex and before you know it, you've woken up in Prince's (or the Artist Formerly Known as Prince's??) bed and it's the year 2037. He is no longer hot. He is no longer human. Anyway, those are the consequences you face if you want to shake things up... so go ahead, as you like. Anyway, my little sister got a bacon cheeseburger with no bacon and the hamburger itself was completely rare (she had ordered it a little past medium). I ate it happily, but I'm also disgusting in my love of raw meat. My hamburger was overcooked, but everything on my plate was otherwise normal. I think my mother got the California Chicken Burger, which was also delicious.

Because now that I've done the conversion and am forced to remember how expensive everything here is, I want to give the cheeseburger two hamburgers. But due to lack of other options and just it's inherent goodness, I'm giving it three. If we were in the Berkshires, though, you'd be sure that I'd get a hell of a lot more than a BACONCHEESEBURGER for twenty-bucks....

Proud to report it is a Coca-Cola establishment and they also serve Ben and Jerry's and Stewart's sodas. Hell yes, America.

Coffee Parisien
46, Rue de Sablonville, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
Tel : 01 46 37 13 13