Pigging Out in Paris

I meant to write a post a while ago about the excellent article by Jay Cheches in December’s Saveur magazine. Cheches writes about Au Pied de Cochon, which he calls “the best-known all-night restaurant in Paris.”

Though its beau monde heyday ended in the 1970s, when Les Halles was paved over to make way for an underground shopping mall, it has preserved its reputation as a night owls’ redoubt. A wee-hours visit to sample the restaurant’s namesake pig’s foot entrée or its famous onion soup remains obligatory for anyone who pines for bygone Paris.

My most recent meal at Au Pied de Cochon, last winter, began at a shamefully early hour: that is, well before midnight.

. . . for regulars, not the tourists who populate the place at the conventional lunch and dinner hours, food has never ranked high among the reasons for dining at Au Pied de Cochon.

Indeed, if you’ve been eating here for decades, the charm of the place is about much more than what comes out of the kitchen.

. . . That so little seems to have changed inside the original restaurant is a testament to its resilience and to Parisians’ potent sense of nostalgia.

The restaurant goes through an estimated 85,000 real pigs’ feet a year.