A very Parisian restaurant, which has been partly captured by the United States, is Prunier’s, in the Rue Duphot. It is the aristocratic oyster and snail shop of Paris, and it has attached to it prunier, Rue a very busy restaurant, which does a Duphot great trade during the months with an r in them. Outside the establishment is a long counter, on which are thousands of oysters of all the kinds beloved by Frenchmen and foreigners, and half-a-dozen men are busy all day long opening them and packing them in little baskets for the en ville trade, or giving them over to the waiters for the customers in the restaurant. The rooms on the first floor are quite gorgeous, but the snuggest room is on the ground floor, a little brown red-curtained chamber, with a sawdusted floor, where you may see fat Burgundians eating the rich snails of their native province, drawing the long brown, steaming, gelatinous things out of silver bowls with silver two-pronged forks. The Americans do not go to Prunier’s to eat snails, but they find there oysters cooked in the various styles to which they are accustomed across the Atlantic. Prunier imports 48 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe Blue Points, his broiled lobsters are excellent, and his chef will fry, or scallop, or broil, or stew oysters as well as any cook above whom the Stars and Stripes wave. I am sufficiently patriotic to prefer a Colchester Bag to a Boston Steak, but the latter combination of good beef and good oysters is to be obtained in perfection at Prunier’s. Another restaurant which has an oyster bar in the front of its premises is Le Grand Vatel in the Rue St. Le Grand Vatel, Honore, a house which has had a 275 Rue st. chequered existence. As the Res- Honore taurant des Fleurs it made a bid to- be one of the supping-places of Paris. Then it changed its name and adopted the American cuisine. It next adopted the Russian cuisine. It seems now to exist quite happily with oysters and the French cuisine as its strong card. Drouant’s Restaurant, which began as an oyster-bar, Drouant, Place faces Henri’s across the Place Gaillon. Gaillon Its fare is simple and cheap, and its oysters excellent. It merits discovery by Anglo-Saxons. There are scores of British bars in Paris where an Englishman, if he desires a chop, can get one, but most of the English in Paris are quite contented with plain French cookery. The Italians, on the other hand, patronise the Italian restaurants, and even the French acknowledge that an Italian cook fries well, and that the Risotto , with its various seasonings, the many different forms which the Paste Asciutte takes, and the Minestrone and the Fritto Misto , are good dishes. There are half-a-dozen Italian restaurants in the centre of Paris, but I have only eaten meals Restaurant at two them — the Restaurant Italien, italien, Passage which is in the network of galleries du Montmartre behjnci the Varietes, and Sansiarto’s, in the Rue St. Augustin. The first-named was the res- taurant at which Rossini used generally to breakfast, c. Paris 49

AI-modernized reading of the original text

A very Parisian restaurant, which has been partly captured by the United States, is Prunier’s, in the Rue Duphot. It is the aristocratic oyster and snail shop of Paris, and it has attached to it prunier, Rue a very busy restaurant, which does a Duphot great trade during the months with an r in them. Outside the establishment is a long counter, on which are thousands of oysters of all the kinds beloved by Frenchmen and foreigners, and half-a-dozen men are busy all day long opening them and packing them in little baskets for the en ville trade, or giving them over to the waiters for the customers in the restaurant. The rooms on the first floor are quite gorgeous, but the snuggest room is on the ground floor, a little brown red-curtained chamber, with a sawdusted floor, where you may see fat Burgundians eating the rich snails of their native province, drawing the long brown, steaming, gelatinous things out of silver bowls with silver two-pronged forks. The Americans do not go to Prunier’s to eat snails, but they find there oysters cooked in the various styles to which they are accustomed across the Atlantic. Prunier imports 48 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe Blue Points, his broiled lobsters are excellent, and his chef will fry, or scallop, or broil, or stew oysters as well as any cook above whom the Stars and Stripes wave. I am sufficiently patriotic to prefer a Colchester Bag to a Boston Steak, but the latter combination of good beef and good oysters is to be obtained in perfection at Prunier’s. Another restaurant which has an oyster bar in the front of its premises is Le Grand Vatel in the Rue St. Le Grand Vatel, Honore, a house which has had a 275 Rue st. chequered existence. As the Res- Honore taurant des Fleurs it made a bid tobe one of the supping-places of Paris. Then it changed its name and adopted the American cuisine. It next adopted the Russian cuisine. It seems now to exist quite happily with oysters and the French cuisine as its strong card. Drouant’s Restaurant, which began as an oyster-bar, Drouant, Place faces Henri’s across the Place Gaillon. Gaillon Its fare is simple and cheap, and its oysters excellent. It merits discovery by Anglo-Saxons. There are scores of British bars in Paris where an Englishman, if he desires a chop, can get one, but most of the English in Paris are quite contented with plain French cookery. The Italians, on the other hand, patronise the Italian restaurants, and even the French acknowledge that an Italian cook fries well, and that the Risotto , with its various seasonings, the many different forms which the Paste Asciutte takes, and the Minestrone and the Fritto Misto , are good dishes. There are half-a-dozen Italian restaurants in the centre of Paris, but I have only eaten meals Restaurant at two them — the Restaurant Italien, italien, Passage which is in the network of galleries du Montmartre behind the Variétés, and Sansiarto’s, in the Rue St. Augustin. The first-named was the restaurant at which Rossini used generally to breakfast, c. Paris 49

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