Strange Bizarre Weird

Ever enter a place and say to yourself – “this place is really weird?”  Happens to me all the time.  For instance, take Le Petit Pascal, in the 13th.  You enter and instead of pictures on the wall and drapes on the windows, the place is seemingly decorated in chalkboards – chalkboards for charcuterie, chalkboards for cheese, chalkboards for wines, chalkboards for specials, chalkboards for starters, chalkboards for mains and chalkboards for desserts. Whew!  Or La Casserole in the 18th.  Again it’s the sight that greets you as you enter that grabs you.  Instead of wall decorations, from every available inch in the ceiling are hung tschotskes; animals, tiny instruments, and what the housekeeping channel lists as figurines, bric-a-brac, curios, ornaments and other what-nots.    Or howabout the late, lamented but famed Table de Lucullus aka Lucullus in the 17th?  Signs designed by the patron and chef and front man Nicolas Vagnon, last spotted on the Ile de Yeu, running a spectacular new resto called Chez Nicolas, 13 rue du Marche, on the back street off the port at Port-Joinville, indicated everything from a caution not to smoke, to a recommendation that you finish your food and not to park on the street because you’d get a ticket (I’m making some, but not all of these, up).   Or finally, another place known mainly to the locals – Sale e Pepe in the 18th – where you’re greeted by the host signing Neapolitan songs at the top of his voice, where’s there’s a big “No Smoking” sign inside but only one tiny chalkboard that offers you “two menus”, one with pizza, the other with pasta, neither offering any other choices.  “The wine list?” I asked timidly on my first visit.  The host slammed a big bottle of red wine down in front of me; “there’s the wine list – drink what you want.”  So, is there a common thread to these weird, bizarre, strange places?  Yes.  The décor, but more than that, the host/chef/owner’s stamp on the décor and the way he or she wants the place to strike you: informal, relaxed, fun, loose, crazy.  Would one want to eat in such surroundings all the time.  Definitely not.  But once in a while, why not?    The places mentioned I think are neat are:  Le Petit Pascal 33 rue Pascal, 13th (Metro:) T: 01.45.35.33.87 Closed weekends A la carte 30 €.    Chez Nicolas 13 rue du Marche, on the back street off the port at Port-Joinville, Ile de Yeu T: 06.74.24.73.10 Closed Wednesdays. A la carte 30-40 €  ©2007 John A. Talbott