Tables for One (special Paris edition): Angelina
Angelina. (Photo by Jeff Berlin)
The best time to be in Paris is in August. Why? Because almost everybody is on vacation, leaving the place wide open to tourists like you, or to the antisocial residents (like I once was) who love the desolation of their own little abandoned-by-the-neighbors neighborhoods, and who you’re not likely to run into at Angelina’s.
Angelina’s, on rue de Rivoli (metro Concorde, Tuilleries, or Palais Royal—they’re all so very close together) has the best hot chocolate, next to Les Deux Magots, on Boulevard St-Germain. The difference is in the clientele. If you want to see lots of fancy-shmancy tourists as well as whatever fashionistas are in town, Angelina is for you. If you’re in town during fashion week, you’ll wait a long time for a table, but you may see a celebrity, an overrated designer or photographer or two, and that’s always amusing. Best of all, nobody in their right mind ever feels awkward sitting alone in any café or restaurant in Paris. It’s done all the time, or as they say in France, ça se fait!
Look at that hot chocolate. It’s almost like melted chocolate pudding, nice and thick. My friend Jeff Berlin* took that photo while he was in Paris recently. He’s the kind of guy who can’t go anywhere that isn’t preapproved or potentially approvable by The Beautiful People I prefer to avoid because I know them too well. I call him “princess.” (He did used to call me “Apeface Johnson” in Junior High School, so I can be excused, can’t I?). To feel like you’re part of it all and mingle with the smart set, just because now and then one should, try Angelina. If you find the atmosphere too rarified and snooty, that hot chocolate will make you forget it.
Now, just so you don’t say I didn’t warn you, the above snack set Jeff back by about 10 euros. That’s the price you pay for being a princess! But who says you can’t be princess for a day?
Angelina
226, rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris
01 42 60 82 00
*Stay tuned for Jeff’s guest appearances in “Tables for One: On the road special editions,” TK.
August 7th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Carolita,
I can’t believe you said that stuff about me. And did you really need to mention the love I had for you in junior high? Now you need to amend the post and tell everyone that you love me.
xo
August 8th, 2006 at 12:40 am
Let it be known that Jeff is beloved!
But he’s still a princess!
I said it tenderly, after all! That’s how people can be when they’re know eachother for twenty-eight years!
(mwa mwa, jeffy!)
August 8th, 2006 at 7:06 am
I instantly felt like running over to the bakery and getting myself a pain au chocolat – probably not quite as delicious as “chez Angelina” but ok and it cost me lass than one Euro… (Plus I can look as scruffy as I want while eating it…)
August 9th, 2006 at 2:07 am
Yeah, you go, Maria!
BTW, in Berlin I had the best poppy-seed croissant made from the kind of dough that pretzels are made of. I forgot what they called it. But it was unbelievably delicious!
August 9th, 2006 at 4:24 am
Poppy-seed croissant? Sounds interesting…
You mean that darkish dough? It’s so dark because they put it in leach before baking. That’s why the Pretzels made from it are called “Laugenbrezeln”.
(A picture of a Laugenbrezel kann be found here for example:
http://www.marions-kochbuch.de/index-bilder/laugenbrezel.jpg )
August 9th, 2006 at 10:40 am
Yes, I believe it was called a “laugencroissant mit mohn”! It was delicious! It was hard just to eat one.
August 9th, 2006 at 11:12 am
“Laugencroissant mit Mohn” sounds like a good German name for such a thing.
August 10th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Angelina! The hot chocolate was delicious! But I agree, too snooty for my tastes. I imagine there are a lot of gems in Paris that aren’t as hyped up and expensive but equally tasty. I wasn’t there long enough to explore all of them. I did stop to eat every fifteen minutes though.
August 10th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
I personally prefered Les Deux Magots for their hot chocolate, and the ageing, fusty clientele mixed with tourists, and the book store around the corner. Much easier to sit and read a book in. But Angelina is an institution, and Jeff’s photo was so pretty I couldn’t not post about it! Looking at the hot chocolate made me re-live the moment.