Autour d'un verre

Justly named, Autour d'un verre is exactly the kind of place you want to have nearby when a leisurely lunch with a couple of glasses of wine is in order.

Located on a quiet street off the bustling Grands Boulevards, it's the ideal off-the-beaten-path spot: central but discreet. So discreet in fact that if you weren't looking for it you'd probably pass right on by since the facade and interior look like they haven't been touched for decades.

Willfully dilapidated and haphazardly decorated, the restaurant itself has no strong identity, it's just a relaxed space where good, honest cooking with fabulous ingredients accompanied by delicious natural wines is meant to be enjoyed without distraction.

For lunch I had the 15E menu which consisted of a delicious smoked salmon starter served with a creamy dill cream and the most perfect, melt-in-your-mouth piece of cabillaud with fluffy mashed potatoes with a slightly sweet twist to them. Paired with a couple of glasses of crisp wine, it was the perfect lunch autour d'un verre (or two)!

Autour d'un Verre is the place you go for a comfortable and relaxing dinner. No worries about pretentious people, you don't have to look around to make sure you are using the right fork and you don't need to be quiet and proper. People go to Autour d'un Verre to just be themselves and enjoy great food with friends and family.

My wife and I had a fantastic dining experience at Autour d'un Verre. She had the pork belly and I had the bone marrow for an appetizer. The bone marrow was so delicious I actually didn't share any with my wife! Her chicken was cooked perfectly as was my steak.

Our waiter was very friendly, spoke great English and he was entertaining to watch as he moved from table to table taking care of all the customers. "Can I get you more wine? Do you need anything else?" He literally made me feel as if we were dining at his house and he was taking care of us as a good host would.

Great food + warm, attentive service = repeat business!

BTW, we also got to meet the Autour d'un Verre Chef, Kevin Blackwell. The kitchen is relatively open and when I noticed some bar stools near the kitchen, I sat in one of them and struck up a conversation with him while he cooked. He was personable, shared some stories about how he got into cooking and ended up taking a selfie with my wife and me!

Thanks Kevin and the Autour d'un Verre Team!

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Autour d'un Verre est l'endroit où vous allez pour un dîner confortable et relaxant. Pas de soucis pour les gens prétentieux, vous ne avez pas à regarder autour de vous assurer que vous utilisez la fourche à droite et vous ne avez pas besoin d'être calme et appropriée. Les gens vont à Autour d'un Verre être juste eux-mêmes et déguster d'excellents plats avec des amis et la famille.

Ma femme et moi avons eu une expérience culinaire fantastique à Autour d'un Verre. Elle avait le ventre de porc et je ai eu la moelle osseuse pour un apéritif. La moelle osseuse est si délicieux que je ne ai en fait pas toute part avec ma femme! Son poulet était cuit parfaitement comme ce était mon steak.

Notre serveur était très sympa et parlait très bien anglais et il était agréable à regarder comme il déplacé de table en table en prenant soin de tous les clients. "Puis-je vous offrir plus de vin? Avez-vous besoin de quelque chose d'autre?" Il a littéralement m'a fait sentir comme si nous dînions chez lui et il prenait soin de nous comme un bon hôte ferait.

Great food + chaleureux, un service attentionné = affaires de répétition!

BTW, nous avons également pu rencontrer l'Autour d'un Verre chef, Kevin Blackwell. La cuisine est relativement ouvert et quand je ai remarqué quelques tabourets de bar près de la cuisine, je me suis assis dans l'un d'entre eux et a engagé la conversation avec lui pendant qu'il cuit. Il était charmant, a partagé quelques histoires sur la façon dont il est entré dans la cuisine et a fini par prendre un Selfie avec ma femme et moi!

I first saw Autour d'un Verre on David Lebovitz' blog, and I've been really curious about it ... but I didn't go until very, very recently. Unfortunately, it was near the end of my time in Paris and I only got to go once :'( The second time I went, it was closed.

So be warned: it opens for lunch at noon, and it does not appear to be open on weekends.

There's a formule (is it possible to order ... outside the formula? There weren't prices listed) for an entrée and plat for 15€. I usually go for plat-dessert, but since that wasn't an option, I shrugged and picked out an appetizer. I got the entrée du jour, which was a soupe aux poireaux (leek soup), and my brother got the gazpacho. Both were excellent, depending on your tastes, but I was in the mood for something mild and French and the leek soup perfectly fit that. It was really great - and the bread was also excellent for getting every last bit.

Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what I ordered for the plat (I mistakenly thought it was a fish) but it was something fermier (some sort of farm bird, I suppose) sitting on perfect mashed potatoes in a delicious sauce. It was AMAZING. I really, really enjoyed it. My brother got the chili con carne because he doesn't like fish, and that was surprisingly excellent and healthy-tasting.

Unfortunately, we had to rush off, and we were really full from our meal, so we didn't get dessert. :( They looked pretty good, though. We sat on the "terrace," which doesn't offer a great view because Rue de Trevise simply isn't that scenic, but it was nice anyway.

It's a very, very small restaurant, and I don't know how crowded it gets, but it's definitely not good for groups.

We took a mid-range culinary tour of Paris last week (meals for two, including wine, between 45€ and 94€), including some major smash hit bistros with 6-week reservation lists, and Autour d'un verre smoked them all!

Yes, this is a super-casual bar à vin--we saw the dog (very friendly) but not the cat. The night we were there half the customers seemed to be close friends of the owners, and the atmosphere was exactly what you read about: it felt as though we were invited into someone's home, the most comfortable dining room in Paris.

And the food was as good as anything we found, including front-page NYT-approved venues like L'Agrume or the new wonder-bistro La Régalade. The zucchini carpaccio with avocado was mind-blowing, the haricots verts seem to come from a different planet, and our two fish plâts were just extraordinary. The only iffy points were the lemon tarte and a bottle of rosé that, while good, could have been a bit better for the price.

For us, at least, this is an absolute do-not-miss restaurant. If I have had a better meal in my middle-class foodie life I cannot remember it.

I learned about this place from Clotilde Dusoulier (chocolate and zucchini blogger) and was very, very pleased with this well priced (23 euros for the prix fixe dinner) restaurant.

The waiter was fairly fluent in English and helped to translate every item of the menu for us. The food was tasty, "heartwarming country fare" as Clothide characterized it and the off-menu natural wine (minimally processed wine) that our waiter suggested for us was delicious. We had the leek soup, cod ceviche (it was just okay, but I should have opted for a more french dish), a tasty cod dish with cheese and zucchini tart, and a curried veal. For dessert, we had a homey cherry cake with a lovely vanilla bean ice cream.

We made a same-night reservation and the place was full when we arrived for the 1030pm seating.