The Brasserie Bofinger on the Place de la Bastille, the favorite restaurant of the sign theorist Roland Barthes, has lost none of its glamor.
The real institutions among the cafés and restaurants of a metropolis can be recognized by their waiters. Many of them have worked in this restaurant for decades, and they balance the trays through the rooms with a solemn nonchalance that makes the purposeful act of serving appear more like a self-determined performance. Those sitting around are guests and spectators at the same time.