Faidherbe / Charonne / Aligre

Below are the main drags to check out in this quarter. See our category tiles further below for more places not to miss.

Rue Faidherbe

Grab some loose leaf tea to bring home as a sou­venir from Par­ti du Thé, gor­geous ter­rar­i­ums and table­ware at B.Green, nice Japan­ese sta­tionery at IJII. For great Moroc­can food, go to Man­souria, or stop at La Belle Équipe for a French café expe­ri­ence. There’s even 5‑star Hôtel Boutet, which has pre­served its stun­ning indus­tri­al facade from its for­mer days as a wood ware­house and then a choco­late fac­to­ry. It’s a shame we had to stop going to Kabane Cof­fee shop: But if you’re curi­ous about what it’s like to expe­ri­ence the dark side of Parisian cus­tomer ser­vice, we dare you to try to get your capuc­ci­no there.

Rue Paul Bert

This street is food­ie nir­vana: Nomade cof­fee shop is a friend­ly, beau­ti­ful large space with plen­ty of inven­tive seat­ing where you can linger as long as you want with great wifi. They also serve light sweet and savory fare. Ter­roirs d’Avenir run a mini-empire on the street: a bak­ery (the best organ­ic bread in the area and rus­tic vien­nois­eries), a high-qual­i­ty local pro­duce mini-mar­ket right across the street (where I’ve spot­ted the hip­ster crew of guys rock it to awe­some elec­tro-clash music dur­ing after-clos­ing cleanup, cur­tain half-drawn), and a butch­er shop and rotis­serie. Ham’s is the spot for connoisseur—you guessed it—hams, but also for wine and high-end apéro fare to go or eat-in, seat­ed at the chic high table in back. Jay & Joy is a shop that makes and sells all sorts of real­ly con­vinc­ing veg­an “dairy” and “meat” prod­ucts (ice cream, foie gras, yogurt, etc). The list of impres­sive restau­rants on this street goes on: Le Bistrot Ton­tine, La Cave du Paul Bert (a tiny, hip wine bar), L’Écaillerie Paul Bert for seafood, Cyril Lignac’s Le Charde­noux, plus his name­sake choco­late shop and pâtis­serie, Breizh Café (deli­cious crêpes and cider), Le Temps au Temps (afford­able, deli­cious French food pre­pared by chef Denis, an adorable guy who runs his place with love and all by him­self), and Úni­co, an always-packed Argen­tine restau­rant. For shop­ping, don’t miss Anna (con­crete lamps and fur­ni­ture), Music Avenue for records and turnta­bles (the own­er is real­ly cool and you feel like you’re walk­ing into his music-filled base­ment), and Marielle’s tiny knit shop, where you can watch her chat with neigh­bors as she knits her next creation.

Rue Jean Macé 

L’Antichambre Per­sane for styl­ish home­ware made in Iran, and curat­ed by a love­ly Iran­ian expat. Les Pénates for their home­made ceram­ic lamps, and cool table­ware. At the cor­ner of Jean Macé and rue Faid­herbe is Le Pure, a casu­al French café with a beau­ti­ful clas­sic bistro interior.

Rue Saint Bernard  & rue de la Forge Royale

Stop by tiny, cozy Mokonuts for what are prob­a­bly the most scrump­tious and inven­tive cook­ies in Paris. Moko and her hus­band Omar also serve killer dish­es that are a del­i­cate blend of Mid­dle-East­ern and Euro cui­sine, sourc­ing fla­vor­ful ingre­di­ents in unex­pect­ed com­bi­na­tions. For cock­tails, head to taste­ful Blue­bird: you’ll feel right at home thanks to the Ital­ian bar­tenders who treat every­one like an old friend, crack­ing jokes and shak­ing cock­tail after cock­tail with a smile. On rue de la Forge Royale, par­al­lel and just to the west of rue Saint Bernard, don’t miss Bode­ga Potx­o­lo for killer Basque tapas and Red House for great cocktails.

Rue Trousseau

Get a home-brewed beer at Les Cuves de Fauve, get the per­fect gift for any­one at Les Fleurs, and have a gourmet meal at tiny and cozy Pianovins. If the cute com­mu­ni­ty gar­den right next to Pianovins hap­pens to be open, go right in and have a seat to rest your weary legs, or help out by water­ing the plants. 🙂

Rue de Charonne

Swing by Moko and Omar’s newest addi­tion, Mokolo­co, for a rotat­ing ros­ter of inven­tive chefs. The Ital­ian team from Blue­bird also run Louie Louie Piz­za at the cor­ner of rue Saint Bernard. More not-to-be-missed restau­rants: Le Sep­time, Sep­time La Cave (wine bar), Tapis­serie (Sep­ti­me’s pas­try shop), Clam­a­to, and Paris Hanoi. POS is a tiny food mar­ket that sells high-qual­i­ty organ­ic pro­duce at great prices. Right next to POS is a hole-in-the-wall Japan­ese eatery that is very authen­tic and deli­cious, but it’s not always open.