Twenty years ago, rue Saint Dominique in the 7th arrondissement would appear to visitors as little more than a quiet walk between the Invalides and the Eiffel Tower, with some food shops at its western end. Gradually, though, it has turned into an alluring artery for culinary adventures. Rue Saint Dominque and its surroundings are now home to a wonderful variety of comfortable dining options, including elegant brasserie, cool bourgeois, Basque chic, high gastronomy, gastronomic charcuterie, even caviar overload. This is not a neighborhood for trendsetting eateries but for earnest upper-middle-class Frenchness.
Meanwhile, the local hotelscape has also evolved as unremarkable small hotels are increasingly upgrading to boutique, even spa, status.
The classic Paris culinary education
The mainsail for culinary explorations in this area is La Fontaine de Mars, the ultra-traditional, southwest-leading Parisian bistro, red-and-white checkered tablecloths, duck confit, watchful matron and all.
If a pedestrian food market street (in this neighborhood that means rue Cler) can be considered step one in the traveler’s culinary education, then lunch or dinner a fresh-fare bistro such as La Fontaine de Mars is step two. Like Paris itself, the restaurant almost feels like it’s living in the past except that here you are, enjoying it, so it’s very much a part of the present.
The restaurant is named for an early 19th-century fountain just outside. Mars, the Roman god of war, stands in relief on the fountain alongside Hygieia, goddess of health and hygiene. The fountain recalls the presence nearby of a military hospital that was torn down at the end of the 19th century. The buildings that now surround the fountain were then built, and the original restaurant opened here in 1908.
Christiane and Jacques Boudon purchased the restaurant in 1991. Within six months they restored it to its 1908 roots and brought in chef Pierre Saugrain, who has been there ever since. Such single-restaurant longevity is a rarity for a hired chef in Paris.
The restaurant offers hearty, delicious reliability: warm goat cheese, foie gras, snails; duck confit, dover sole, cassoulet; crème brûlée, mousse au chocolat, millefeuille. Southwest comfort food. The wine list, heavy on the reds, covers the basics while also allowing for a splurge à la Lafitte-Rothschild, Petrus or Haut Brion.
In October La Fontaine de Mars came out with a cookbook “Un Bistrot Parisien: La Fontaine de Mars en 50 recettes,” featuring 50 recipes (in French) of southwestern cuisine.
Echoes of the Obama buzz
La Fontaine de Mars has long been a local institution, on the map for both Parisians and visitors. It was enlarged in 2007. Its reputation grew stronger across the Atlantic when Barack and Michelle Obama dined here on June 6, 2009, the 65th anniversary of D-Day. The president and his wife had come to Paris following the commemorations in Normandy and were looking for a traditional French meal.
The American ambassador and his wife had dined at the restaurant before, Christiane Boudon told me, so it was likely on their recommendation (and the green light of the secret service) that the Obamas came. As an admired and recently installed American president and as a couple known for their interest in quality meals, the buzz of their choice of La Fontaine de Mars quickly spread. That the buzz echoes ten years on is a testimony to both the Obamas and La Fontaine de Mars.
The Obamas dined in the second of the small rooms upstairs, as the plaque by the entrance to that room indicates, but better to opt for the atmosphere on the ground floor or, weather permitting, on the side terrace.
There’s another Obama and primarily Bush connection nearby: Philippe Excoffier, chef at residence of the American ambassador to France from 2001 to 2010, has operated his self-named restaurant just up the street since 2011.
La Fontaine de Mars
129 rue Saint Dominique, 7th arrondissement
Metro Ecole Militaire, RER Pont de l’Alma
Open daily, for lunch noon to 3pm, for dinner 7:30 (7:15 on Sun.)-11pm.
Tel: 01 47 05 46 44
© 2019, Gary Lee Kraut