The Great Parisian Plate Debate

4, Rue Panoyaux
75020 Paris
Tel. 01 43 58 11 62

In the disappointed wake of Kim’s Lounge, in a true act of desperation, we pulled out a guide Christian happened to have with him. With nothing close to us, Lou Pascalou, a bar featured in the 20^th seemed like our best bet. We polished off our drinks, and bravely set forth.

After Christian broken the chain on his Velib, we finally got to Lou Pascalou, and man, were we ever impressed. Mediocrity had hit a new high.

I think the best part for me was the green canopy. Boldly and professionally emblazoned with the name in gold letters, it spoke to the quality of the establishment. It went downhill from there.

The inside was oppressively stifling, and I don’t even particularly remember what it looked like, as we rushed to the outside tables.

Now I could be wrong, but my understanding of the new smoking ban is that an establishment may have an outdoor smoking area as long as at least one side remains open. Good Lou seems to have blatantly ignored this, rolling down a third wall of clear plastic sheeting. This did an outstanding job of sealing in that extra-sweet acrid smoke you only get from French hand rolled cigarettes. Well done sir, well done. Except that I don’t smoke, and everyone else in Paris does.

But I think I’m missing the point: alcohol. After we finally flagged down the poor overworked waitress, we asked for the wine list. Either they didn’t have one or she couldn’t be bothered to get it. She impatiently rattled off what she claimed were their three white wines. Wait, that’s it? I ordered a bottle of Petit Chablis.

After a while she returned, looking more annoyed than apologetic. Apparently they did not in fact have any of the three bottles that she had just listed. She gave us another couple choices, and we ordered a Muscadet. It came and was drinkable. Then we had a beer.

That’s about it, and as negative as this may seem, I removed easily twice as many bad things as the positive that remain. Don’t go here, ca ne vaut pas la peine.