Le Dauphin

Chef Inaki Aïzpitarte and maître d’hôtel Fred Péneau opened Le Dauphin, a wine-bar annex next door to their always-packed Le Chateaubriand in January. Designed by architects Rem Koolhaas and Clément Blanchet, it’s cool and compact, with a U-shaped central bar, and floors and walls clad in Carrara marble. Currently one of the trendiest addresses in Paris, it’s also an excellent wine bar with an original wine list and a regularly changing small-plates menu that offers cameos of Aïzpitarte’s restless culinary imagination. Two intriguing examples recently tasted: a delicious composition of snails and cabbage in a Spanish ham jus, and a sublime buttermilk-and-olive-oil ice cream for dessert.

131 ave Parmentier, 11th, 01.55.28.78.88. €40 per person without wine

Originally published in the November 2011 issue of France Today