Snack time is no longer just for children after school. He now invites himself to the restaurant table where the different services follow one another. From hotels, we knew the tea rooms for a salty and sweet tea time. New restaurants, when they open next to hotel addresses, now go further. At the house of Kitchen, the restaurant attached to the Madame Rêve hotel (Paris 3rd), “you have to be able to feed hungry customers who arrive in the middle of a jet lag,” emphasizes Stéphanie Le Quellec. Between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., the chef not only provides them with pastries from her menu but also some afternoon snack dishes, truffle pasta or radish butter.
Snack time at San Régis is sacred
The San Regis Hotel (Paris 8th) called on Jessica Prealpato, best pastry chef in the world 2019 and 2023 according to the 50 Best, to offer a moment of comfort between 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Despite the luxurious and intimate setting of the restaurant Les Confidences, there is no fuss or ostentatious display in its snack which focuses on simple and natural flavors, highlighting carefully selected seasonal fruits. At the end of October, it’s a melting fig tart that keeps us busy. As well as a delicious mixture of fresh raspberries topped with a raspberry sorbet enhanced by a watercress pesto which brings incredible freshness. Small choux buns, biscuits and a tailor-made herbal tea accompany these fruity and prepared desserts.
“The desire to offer a snack came naturally. Sarah and Zeina Georges, the owners of the hotel, wanted to bring the restaurant to life in the afternoon. It was an opportunity for me to give free rein to my imagination, and to imagine proposals worthy of a restaurant service but with a family offering to share. » His credo: stick to hypernatural flavors and eliminate all unnecessary sugar: “I work with wholemeal flours and seasonal fruits, to always have taste and deliciousness but by “de-sweetening” as much as possible. » A successful bet, it’s plentiful but we leave the table with a light stomach. Jessica Préalpato insists on her atypical “snack” offering: “I’m not as good at savory offerings as I am at sweet offerings, so I concentrate on what I do best. And what’s more, we don’t offer tea at the San Régis snack! »
The gourmet extension of Vero Dodat
Quite the opposite of Vero Dodat (Paris 1st), which excels in this area with a remarkable selection of teas from the Nunshen house. At the heart of the gallery of the same namethis restaurant opened last year provides a classic lunchtime service, but its chef Filipe Domingues, a former Robuchon employee, has the distinction of being a pastry chef. This is evident in the love given to the afternoon service. After 3 p.m., the restaurant gradually transforms into a tea room, where families and tourists flock for a gourmet stopover. Among the pastries that make the house’s reputation, “all prepared the same morning”, warns Bertrand Cazenave, the owner, we appreciate the good performance of the rum baba and an Opera strong in coffee, but not very sweet, very successful . For those with a salty tooth, some snacks: salmon rillettes or game terrines on slices of grilled focaccia.
A former artist who worked at the Paris Opera and the Comédie Française, Bertrand Cazenave had the idea of opening this elegant address, central and yet far from the busiest streets, at the time of confinement. “One of my friends, who runs a perfume shop right next door, warned me that this restaurant was for sale. As there was a nice extraction, I said to myself that it would be a shame to make a store out of it. I preferred to make it a restaurant at lunchtime which would transform into a tea room to make the most of the day. » From November 15, the Vero Dodat will offer, upon reservation, a tea time for 35 euros with three finger sandwiches, including a croque-monsieur with wild boar sausage, a scone, a madeleine or financier, a hot drink and a pastry of your choice. All to be enjoyed in the dining room or on the protected terrace under the glass roof of the gallery. “We require reservations to avoid ending up with unsold items in the evening,” explains Bertrand Cazenave.
P1 Bouche serves a restaurant from breakfast to snack time
Behind the Butte Montmartre (Paris 18th), Workshop P1 (pronounced “bread”) is a neighborhood bakery known for its long fermentations which “develop the aromas of the bread, facilitate digestion, and allow the artisan baker to not have to work at night,” smiles Julien Cantenot. And that’s good because during the day, it doesn’t stay in place. “I worked in cafes before, I like living spaces,” confides the man who dreamed of installing more than a small table in his bakery. “Our restaurant neighbors were looking for a buyer after their departure, so we jumped at the chance. » Atelier P1 no longer only makes bread and pastries while pies and cakes are now prepared in the kitchen P1 Mouthlocated 50 meters away.
Julien imagined the place as a breakfast restaurant “with eggs, sandwiches, yogurts and granolas, savory and sweet tarts, flans, mousses, juices…” But at P1 Bouche, the little -lunch can linger until snack time, even if two or three more substantial dishes are added to lunch. “Apart from very touristy places, the big breweries, continuous service is quite rare,” continues Julien Cantenot, “to be able to take time without wondering what time it is…” The only imperative, not to too late. “We close at 5:30 p.m., but we still have time to welcome parents who come out of school with their children to have a slice of cake, a cookie, a small madeleine or even a fresh fruit juice…”
After the pastry shop and the tea room, here is Le Grand Café
Sébastien Gaudard is a collector. After his pastry shop, after his tea room, since the start of the school year he has been running a café, The Grand Café (Paris 9th), opened in place of a former glacier behind the Folies Bergères. “I often do things backwards,” he confides. I saw the space, its high ceilings which lent itself well to making a café and afterwards, I said to myself, I have to learn how to make coffee again. »
Sébastien Gaudard, who no longer drank it, converted to specialty coffee. To accompany it, a selection of pastries “which we currently only find in individual cakes” but which we are going to change. Added to this are “savory tarts, fine tarts that we will make later”, a few salads, avocado on toast with an egg, Lorraine pâté “because customers come for that”, quiche lorraine, the croque-monsieur, the conté ham croissant “which looks like the one I ate when I was a kid and which is killer. » And then ice cream “because we are going to set up our ice cream workshop here, around twenty flavors, ice creams and sorbets combined. » A few weeks after opening, Sébastien Gaudard is still waiting to “better understand the habits of people here” to develop his concept of gourmet coffee.
This new trend is up to artisans such as Christophe Adam who owes it. In 2017, the inventor of Eclairs of genius opened Le Dépôt legal (Paris 2nd), a “place of life, more than a restaurant”, where the pastry chef aimed to “deposit good products to sell them at their fair price price, their legal price”.
At lunchtime and in the evening, you can enjoy very simple cuisine, “because you can’t cook anything here,” warns Christophe Adam, “only toast.” From creamy burrata to sea bream ceviche, the savory dishes are meticulous, the iconic desserts – brilliant éclairs and tartlets renamed barlettes because they are in the shape of bars – make the eyes sparkle before making the taste buds tingle. “I come from the world of pastry,” recalls the chef. It has to be beautiful first and then it has to be good. » Pastry raid: after snack time, there are no more. Christophe Adam can bring out the charcuterie for the aperitif. The lightning genius was a pioneer in the field of non-stop service, from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and with success, he opened another café last year. Another place where you can sit down and enjoy a good snack.