![]() Everything else is unlimited, from caviar to stewed tripe. Drinks cost extra, but they are sold at a minimal markup, so a bottle of Mercier champagne costs twenty-five euros, about the same as it does in the supermarket. ![]() Last year, more than three hundred and eighty thousand people paid fifty-two euros and ninety centimes for the pleasure of visiting Les Grands Buffets. “Our job is to rid people of their inhibitions.” “Our golden rule is that, if it’s complicated, then that’s a good reason to do it,” Louis Privat, the restaurant’s proprietor, said. It’s at an all-you-can-eat buffet situated in a municipal rec center in the smallish city of Narbonne. The toughest reservation in France, it turns out, is not at a Michelin-starred destination like Mirazur or Septime. (They eat at discounted rates.) I would be refused entry if I showed up in sweatpants, an undershirt, a bathing suit, a sports jersey, flip-flops, a ball cap, or any of three kinds of shorts. If I wanted to bring children under ten years of age, I needed to submit their names at least three days in advance. “We remind you that this reservation is non-modifiable, you cannot change the number of guests, the date of the meal, the hour of the meal, or the name of the beneficiary,” the confirmation e-mail read. The next available table was for a Wednesday in December, at 8:45 p. A week or so later, I went to its Web site, and entered my e-mail address to receive a secure link to make a reservation online. The restaurant is called Les Grands Buffets. Guillaume showed me a picture of the crystal-curtained lobster tower-seven layers of vermillion crustaceans, topped by an upright specimen thrusting its claws to the sky, as though it had just slayed a halftime show, amid a cloud of mist. There was talk of flaming duck and a chocolate fountain. He had just celebrated his birthday there. Last summer, I went to dinner at Guillaume’s, and he mentioned a restaurant, an all-you-can-eat buffet not far from his home town in the South of France. ![]() Guillaume recently alerted me that a man who was fired for not being fun enough at work got his job back, winning five hundred thousand euros in a landmark case. Like: there’s a dance called the Madison that many French people think is a regular feature of parties in the United States. My friend Guillaume is always telling me interesting things.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |