Summer’s crest
OKOMUSU, Villa Eugénie, Chez Denise, Passerini, Gelateria di Berna, favorite Burgundy restaurants, MORE
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Today, three PROMPTS for which we seek your answers:
What’s your favorite specialty bookstore in Paris?
I need a caterer for a casual summer gathering. Any ideas?
What Paris store or service do you love to recommend?
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RESTAURANTS • First Person
Attention economy
A tiny counter, tucked just off the noise of Rue Charlot, Okomusu is entirely devoted to Osaka culinary specialty okonomiyaki: a hearty pancake of eggs, flour, and cabbage, topped according to the mood with shrimp, pork, or vegetables.
Push the door, and the Parisian sidewalk drops away fast. You’re suddenly somewhere closer to a small izakaya, warm from the first hello. If you’re lucky, you get a seat at the counter itself. If not, there’s a long communal table at the back, big enough for eight, run on an auberge-espagnole logic: strangers share the table because the room is small, and that’s simply how it works. The crowd splits evenly between people who work in the neighborhood and grabbed a weekday lunch, and regulars who clearly know the address and came back on purpose.
I sat down mistakenly expecting to order quickly. The menu asks for real attention, with enough variations and add-ons that picking one feels less like ordering and more like making a life-altering decision. That extra reading time turns out to be the first good sign. Restaurants that let you order on autopilot are usually fine with you not thinking too hard about what you’re eating. Okomusu isn’t one of them. It forces you to actually want something, specifically, before it shows up.
I wisely decided on the shrimp okonomiyaki. It arrives scalding, coated in a sauce that’s soft and faintly sweet, with bonito flakes rippling under the heat rising off the plate, the kind of detail you only see in kitchens where someone thought about the show, not just the plate.
At lunch, it comes as part of the set (€20 per), served with a starter of your choice: gyoza, Japanese-style tapas, or miso soup. None of them try to compete with the main event; they’re there to open the appetite, not fill you up before the pancake lands. Portions stay small on purpose: counter logic, not restaurant logic.
And that’s really what this is: a format built for two, workable for three, and (thanks to that back table) occasionally stretched to eight strangers sharing sauce down the line. Okomusu isn’t trying to be anything other than a very small Japanese counter that does one thing very well. Judged by that criteria, it’s a perfect Paris eatery. –Rodolphe Pelosse
→ OKOMUSU (3rd arr) • 11 Rue Charlot • Daily 12h-14h30 & 19h-22h • Book.
PARIS WORK & PLAY LINKS: Fires in Fontainebleau forest near Paris contained, but firefighters battle on • Six summer 2026 fashion trends that are already huge in Paris • From the runway, looks as extreme as the Paris heat • Viral things in Paris not worth queuing for • Paris reads for summer 2026.
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WORK • Friday Routine
Standing table
NAÏNA DE BOIS JUZAN • account director • Villa Eugénie
Neighborhood you work in: 11th arr
Neighborhood you live in: 15th arr
It’s Friday afternoon. How are you approaching the weekend?
There are two possibilities: a Paris weekend ahead, or a weekend in the countryside! We head to our country house in the Perche two weekends a month, about an hour from Paris. Our home is set in a beautiful area, just a few meters from a 300-hectare family-owned forest. Whether summer or winter, we love spending time there. During school holidays or long weekends, I’ve sometimes worked remotely from the countryside, and I really appreciate the calm and perspective it gives me.
My husband and I also love making the most of Paris. We’re very attached to the city we live in and have a very urban lifestyle (it’s impossible for us to imagine moving to the suburbs just to have a garden). When we’re in Paris, we love going out to restaurants and have many go-to spots depending on our mood. We also love seeing friends and often host them at home for either a sit-down dinner or something more festive. During the day, we do activities with our 10-month-old daughter — painting, music, puppet shows, and more — and we also spend time as a family with my stepdaughters, who are 14 and 16.
What’s on the agenda these days?
I’m an account director at Villa Eugénie, an event agency specializing in the production of major events in the fashion and luxury worlds (producing runway shows for Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Dior, Schiaparelli, Moncler, Chloé, Mugler, Dries Van Noten, among others). My job is to act as the conductor for the creation and production of fashion shows for some of the agency’s key clients. I receive the brief from the fashion houses’ artistic directors and with the support of creative, technical, and production teams, we find a venue, develop a concept, design a set, and oversee the entire production of the show.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight or this weekend?
We love going to Chez Denise, a legendary restaurant in the Les Halles district, which used to be open all night long. You can enjoy all the traditional French dishes there, with great wine (still served “à la ficelle”).
We’re also huge fans of the great Parisian brasseries, and we have our regular table at La Closerie des Lilas, where they also serve excellent seafood. We love the pianist who plays in the evenings.
For traditional bistros, our top picks are Le Bistrot Paul Bert, Aux Deux Amis, and Vantre. For Italian food: Passerini is far ahead, but we also love Carboni’s for their cacio e pepe. In summer, we often go to a well-kept secret in the 20th arrondissement: the restaurant Caché and its neighbor Amagat.
For Asian cuisine, we regularly head to the restaurants in the 13th arrondissement, especially on Sunday evenings to close out the weekend. Otherwise, for a quick lunch, we go to the Chinese canteens in Belleville: Tintin and Dong Huong. For Chinese hotpot — I love organizing girls’ nights around hotpot — it’s XiaoLongKan. For excellent Japanese food, Tsukizi, ideally seated at the counter.
And finally, an excellent Russian restaurant: À la Ville de Petrograd, with traditional music on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Any favourite escapes or weekend getaways?
Before having our daughter, we loved going to Palermo, sometimes just for a few days! It’s a very short flight from Paris, and suddenly you’re under the Sicilian sun, with the sea just a few kilometers away and a vibrant city to explore. We absolutely love Italy.
What were your most recent great holidays?
We’ve just returned from a wonderful trip to India. I’m half Indian, and we try to go to India at least once a year. I lived in New Delhi for 11 years, from age 17 to 28, so I still have many friends there, as well as a lot of family. Going to India feels like going home in a way. In Delhi, I recommend staying at Bungalow 99, a perfectly located and very pleasant guesthouse. For restaurants: Indian Accent for refined Indian fusion cuisine, and Pandara Road for more popular Indian food (open all night).
I also highly recommend visiting Lajpat Nagar Market, a very local, large bazaar where you can buy Indian bracelets, bindis, fabrics, shawls. It’s great to wander around and soak up the atmosphere. You must also visit the great Sikh temple Gurudwara Bangla Sahib and tour the kitchens where they serve free meals to more than 30,000 people a day. It’s incredibly impressive.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Bronzed
France v England • Hard Rock Stadium (Miami, FL) • Sat @ 17h • sec 118, 2230 € per (1002 € lowest avail)
Juanes • Salle Pleyel (8th Arr) • Tue @ 20h • carre or, 113 € per
Lea Maria Fries • Parc Floral • (12th arr) • Sat @ 16h • GA, free.
GETAWAYS • Switzerland
Last licks
A couple of blocks away from the Rhine, one usually spots Gelateria di Berna before reaching it. A queue snakes down the pavement, a true snapshot of Basel’s summer ritual: Cyclists stopping for a well-earned break, families and groups of friends still dripping from the river, flip-flops squeaking on the pavement, already planning a lick-and-dip kind of afternoon. Step inside, and the mood only intensifies.
GETAWAYS LINKS: In the South of France, Dan Flavin is the exhibition we need right now • In Deauville, espying the design details at remade Hotel Barrière Le Normandy • Meditations on a French summer vacation • Summer on the Slovenian Riviera.
GETAWAYS • The Nines
Restaurants, Burgundy
The Nines are FOUND’s distilled lists of the best in Paris and surrounds. Paid subscribers access the complete Nines archive.
Maison Lameloise (Chagny), revered restaurant, since 1921, traditional Burgundian dishes served by tasting menu or à la carte