Les Gourmets des Ternes

There's a restaurant next to Place des Ternes that we pass every day on the way to the kid's school that's always busy and seems to have a great ambience. Les Gourmets de Ternes is a typical French bistrot that just looks like one of those places you know the food is good, so we decided to go for lunch one day to celebrate a visitor from Seattle.

The legend on the outside of the restaurant says "De père en fils depuis 1962," and it's now the son, who we learned is called Jean François Marie, who runs the place. As soon as we arrived Jean François greeted us at the entrance and showed us to a nice table on the terrace.

It's clear that Jean François and his restaurant are quite popular. They have custom-made paper table covers printed with inscriptions and autographs of many of the celebrities that have been there, like Jean Paul Belmondo, Jacques Cousteau, Mick Jagger, Johnny Hallyday, Charles Aznavour, Jack Nickolson, and the list goes on; even ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss Kahn and wife Anne Sinclair's autographs are on them.

We got our menus and not much later Jean François came by, asked us a few questions about what we liked, and then told us not to worry, that he'd take care of everything. And take care of everything he did.

We sometimes get a carafe of wine, which is very affordable, but Jean François sent us a really nice bottle of Brouilly.

Three types of appetizers arrived at our table—not already served on plates, but in their actual serving trays, which were left at our table for us to serve ourselves as much as we wanted to. Wow, we thought, this is a nice courtesy; must be because we're new customers, or because we're not from here, or just because he liked us. The patés were great, but the artichoke hearts and lentil salad were to die for.

The head waiter kept addressing us in English, but whenever we could we would reply in French. More than halfway through lunch he got it and said, sounding surprised, "Ah, mais vous parlez Français!"

The house specialty is beef. Jean François took care of that too and sent us the "Spécial Pièce de Boeuf au Poivre." A thick, juicy piece of French beef cooked à point in the best pepper sauce. It's not what we would have ordered, since it was pretty pricey, but I have to thank Jean François for deciding for us because it's probably the best piece of beef I've ever had.

They suggested the Baba au Rhum for dessert. A delightful small yeast cake saturated in rum and filled with pastry cream that "makes grown men cry of joy". We enthusiastically accepted.

Of course we enjoyed all these nice gestures—and of course, everything that came to our table appeared on the bill. It was probably Jean François who took care of that, too!

This was more than a great meal, it was a wonderful experience, one we'll remember for a long time, even if they didn't ask us for our autographs.