But before proceeding as far up the boulevards as Marguery’s I should have dealt with the restaurants of newspaper land which lie round and about the Faubourg Montmartre. If you walk up Restaurant the Rue de Richelieu from the boule- Gauclair, vards you come, after a hundred yards Rue st- Marc or so, to what appears to be one of the ordinary Parisian drinking houses. The bar, however, is of marble, and if you look up to the first floor you see an illuminated sign telling that this is the Restaurant Gauclair. Round the corner in the Rue St. Marc is the entrance. There is a small white room on the ground floor, and this is the favourite dining-place. There are three other dining-rooms on the first-floor, and a little salon for private parties. The house at meal times -is always in a bustle, and resonant with the voices of the waiters shouting orders down speaking- tubes to the cook in the basement. The cookery ot the Gauclair to-day, under M. Maurice, is very much what it must have been when the restaurant was first founded in 1810. It is the good bourgeoise cuisine, everything excellent of its kind. Nor is it likely to deteriorate, for most of its clientele are the gentlemen who drive quills and occasionally wield the a epee de combat ” on behalf of the Temps, the Matin , and other great papers which have their offices in the neighbour- hood. Most of these gentlemen are gastronomes ot the highest order. 38 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe Beauge’s is another quiet, essentially French res- taurant in this central quarter. It shows a brown lace, its principal entrance, and windows with lace curtains to the Rue St. Marc, and it has another en- Beauge’s, trance in one of the arcades behind the Rue st. Marc Varietes, its face turned towards the arcade being rather forbidding in appearance. It was founded in 1848, and except that it is lighted by electricity, must now be very much as it was when first built. The street entrance leads into a little ante-room where cold meats and tarts and fruit are set out temptingly. The tables are placed very close together in the little rooms on the ground floor, and the lady at the desk is squeezed up against the window^ in her little pen ; but the restaurant has a dignity of its own, and the plump proprietor is efficient though unhurrying. It has its “ dishes of the house.” There is, of course, a Sole Beauge} and there is a Filet de Barbue Beauge and Rognons Beauge , and a very special Tarte Beauge. The patrons of the restaurant are like its cookery, comfortable and unpretentious. Lapre’s, in the Rue Druot, next door to the Figaro offices, was originally an oyster shop, and still retains a little oyster bar in its front of light oak. Little Lapre’s, curtains of green silk and l-ace shelter Rue Druot diners and those who sup at Lapre’s from the eyes of the curious outside. A little grotto and creepers on trellis and baskets of illuminated flowers form part of the adornment of the first room. In the second room are more illuminated bouquets of flowers and mirrors in Oriental frames. Lapre’s is open all night long, and is much frequented by journalists and also by pretty ladies. It has its specialties, which are mostly of fish and oysters, and lobsters and langoustes. It has a dozen various methods of cooking shellfish, and its oyster soup and its Filet de Barbue are both excellent. c Tans 3 9

AI-modernized reading of the original text

But before proceeding as far up the boulevards as Marguery’s I should have dealt with the restaurants of newspaper land which lie round and about the Faubourg Montmartre. If you walk up Restaurant the Rue de Richelieu from the boule- Gauclair, vards you come, after a hundred yards Rue st- Marc or so, to what appears to be one of the ordinary Parisian drinking houses. The bar, however, is of marble, and if you look up to the first floor you see an illuminated sign telling that this is the Restaurant Gauclair. Round the corner in the Rue St. Marc is the entrance. There is a small white room on the ground floor, and this is the favourite dining-place. There are three other dining-rooms on the first-floor, and a little salon for private parties. The house at meal times -is always in a bustle, and resonant with the voices of the waiters shouting orders down speakingtubes to the cook in the basement. The cookery ot the Gauclair to-day, under M. Maurice, is very much what it must have been when the restaurant was first founded in 1810. It is the good bourgeoise cuisine, everything excellent of its kind. Nor is it likely to deteriorate, for most of its clientele are the gentlemen who drive quills and occasionally wield the a epee de combat ” on behalf of the Temps, the Matin , and other great papers which have their offices in the neighbourhood. Most of these gentlemen are gastronomes ot the highest order. 38 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe Beauge’s is another quiet, essentially French restaurant in this central quarter. It shows a brown face, its principal entrance, and windows with lace curtains to the Rue St. Marc, and it has another en- Beauge’s, trance in one of the arcades behind the Rue st. Marc Varietes, its face turned towards the arcade being rather forbidding in appearance. It was founded in 1848, and except that it is lighted by electricity, must now be very much as it was when first built. The street entrance leads into a little ante-room where cold meats and tarts and fruit are set out temptingly. The tables are placed very close together in the little rooms on the ground floor, and the lady at the desk is squeezed up against the window^ in her little pen ; but the restaurant has a dignity of its own, and the plump proprietor is efficient though unhurrying. It has its “ dishes of the house.” There is, of course, a Sole Beauge} and there is a Filet de Barbue Beauge and Rognons Beauge , and a very special Tarte Beauge. The patrons of the restaurant are like its cookery, comfortable and unpretentious. Lapre’s, in the Rue Druot, next door to the Figaro offices, was originally an oyster shop, and still retains a little oyster bar in its front of light oak. Little Lapre’s, curtains of green silk and l-ace shelter Rue Druot diners and those who sup at Lapre’s from the eyes of the curious outside. A little grotto and creepers on trellis and baskets of illuminated flowers form part of the adornment of the first room. In the second room are more illuminated bouquets of flowers and mirrors in Oriental frames. Lapre’s is open all night long, and is much frequented by journalists and also by pretty ladies. It has its specialties, which are mostly of fish and oysters, and lobsters and langoustes. It has a dozen various methods of cooking shellfish, and its oyster soup and its Filet de Barbue are both excellent. c Tans 3 9

The gourmet's guide to Europe