The Press., 1897-06-03
PARIS RESTAURANTS.
INFORMATION FOR THOSE WHO IN-
 TEND VISITING THE GAY CITY.

The ''swell" Eating Places and Samples
 of Their Charges-Prices That Some
 times Astonish Even High Rolling
 Americans.
 Those Americans who think that New York is an expensive place ought to go to Paris. There is no doubt that the prices of New York at first class places are high, bat the New York restaur- ants have not reached such expertness in making out bills as they have in Paris. Therefore it is not at all uncom- mon to notice an American with his wife going over his bill with the hair slowly rising upon his head.
 There arc plenty of places in Paris where you can get dinner cheaper the bouillons Duval, for example. These restaurants are sprinkled all over Paris, and they give you plain food very well cooked at reasonable figure. But the average American generally goes to the swell places, which are about 12 in number. There is the Cafe de Paris, Cubat's, Chevillard's, Durand's, Jo- seph &, the Restaurant Larue, the Tour d'Argent, Maire's, Paillard's, the Mai son Doree, the Cafe Voisin and the Res taurant Lucas, together with the Cafe Anglais, the Lion dor, Foyot's and Marquery s, if you choose to include them. The Cafe Anglais is no longer first class, the Lion d Or has been closed, Foyot's is in the Latin quarter and Marquery's is only middle class. The highest priced places are Durand's, Pail 'c on1 Tofo tboco are the most frequented. Each year the restaurant frequented by the "swells' changes. Two years ago it was Du- rand's, last year it was Paillard's and this year it is Voisin's.
 Americans are generally disappointed in the appearance of these places be- cause they are frequently small and by no means gorgeous in their equipments They are all arranged in about tho same way-a row of cushioned seats or di- vans running around the wall, with ta- bles placed next to them. The guests nearly always ensconce themselves on the seats next to the wall and are served from the other side of the tables by the walters. Occasionally, when the place is crowded, people will seat themselves on the outside but ordinarily they are found on only ono side of the table As for tEo table linen, the china, the knives and forks, they arc by no means as fine as we find in many of the American hotels and restaurants. The cooking, however, is hard to excel The reason : that tho Paris restaurants obtain such high prices is owing to their peculiarity of getting what they call primeurs. Their Paris epicurean guests seem to ! want to eat things out of season. For example, they are fond of serving you peas in January. Then, they will give you pheasants and birdnest soup and other exotic dishes.
 Hero is sample dinner and very plain one for two at a Paris restaurant. They charge you, by the way, 50 cen- times, or 10 cents, to sit down. There fore for the two places, or converts, put down 1 franc; an aperitif, the substi- ute for our American cocktail, another , franc; a bottle of ordinary white wine, 3 francs; bottle of ordinary burgundy, francs; tureen of bouillon, another franc; sole with normandy sauce, 8 francs; a duokling with turnips and cream, l 5 francs; asparagus with de-
 
 5 francs; coffee, half france; liqueurs, franc; tip, half franc; total, about 60 francs, or about $12.
 The French have many ways of cook ing eggs most deliciously. For exam pie, eggs with shrimps, scram bled eggs with chicken gravy, and scrambled eggs with almost everything, much better, you find, than in America. They also cook many things in covered saucepans which are most appetizing. Their sauce pans are earthenware, of the kind call ed casseroles, and by keeping them cov- cred they can cook a chicken en casse- role which will make your mouth wa ter. The average American chicken is baked in an oven-although the cook thinks she is roasting it when she is only baking it-and, as a rule, it is dry and tasteless and unfit to eat.
 You can get lunch, or what the French call 8 breakfast, at any of these restaurants, including bottle of ordi- nary wine, butter, shrimps, eggs and mushrooms, chicken with artichoke hearts, straw wberry tart, coffee and cheese for about 25 francs, say $5. But all of these bills that am giving you are the dinners and breakfasts ordered by people who are careful. The average !, American is apt to take things which are suggested to him by the waiter, and when he has eaten with his table com panion say four dishes and finds that it costs $1 o apiece it makes him very tired If you will notice, I have put on the bills of fare above only ordinary wines If you place yourself in the hands of the sommeiller, or wine steward, and tell him you want something very good, , he will bring you up an old cobwebby bottle of burgundy without any tag on it and will tell you that it is good. So it is It will generally cost you more than champagne, and by the same token it is better than champagne. Americans soon find out the places where they have 7 good burgundy and bordeaux, but they have to pay for them I would advise these Americans always to trust in the } sommeiller rather than attempt to find things themselves from the wine list, because the wine list is meaningless All it can tell you is vintage and prices, and sometimes not even that Paris Cor. San Francisco Argonaut.
 Enlightened.
 Tarry de Windt, the Siberian traveller, took number of woodcuts of the An dree polar balloon for distribution among the natives of northwestern Si- beria. One day he noticed Tchuktchi studying one of the pictures intently and asked him what he would do if be saw it in the sky. "Shoot it, was the immediate reply.
 8 The Obliging Bankrupt. r Good co1nradeship may count for : much. No man ever typifed this better than the Wall street broker who said l to his friend the reporter: II didn t l fail until after the evening papers went