Paris imagines itself much like an escargot. Each of its arrondissements, or little burroughs, spiral throughout the city much like the curves on the shell of a snail. Rather than plot points on a map or the parallel and perpendicular lines on a grid, the city conjures up images of one of France’s most iconic dishes to localize each section of town. So it’s no coincidence that gastronomy is woven into the very fabric of the French culture. But not everything that is French is uniquely French.
New restaurant chain and phenomenon Maison has broken some of the rules of traditional French cuisine by bringing its brand of gourmet burgers to the city of lights. Helmed by 30-something entrepreneur Tanguy, Maison fancies itself the house of the haute burger. Maison has nestled one of its two bustling restaurants in the luxurious 6th arrondissement where one finds a slew of chic boutiques running endlessly down Boulevard Saint Germain. The other sits in the ever popular 10th arrondissement, cozily rubbing elbows with a crop of advertising agency buildings, salons and production houses.
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The philosophy is simple. Dress up burgers with locally farmed beef and cheeses, veggies and other garnishes to take the comfort in “comfort food” up several notches. You don’t simply have a burger and fries. You have different incarnations of burger that correspond with different variations of beef that have been raised and farmed in equally different parts of the country. For that reason, Tanguy has paired certain kinds of cheeses and sauces with specific cuts of beef. One is succulent and spicy. Another tender and mild, and yet another intense and robust. Fries for their part come freshly made, in house. Each savory morsel goes down with a wash of ale, curated from a respectable list of beers and ciders.
“We looked a lot at what was happening in the U.S. We wanted to bring burgers to Paris but keep our French touch at the same time.” And they have. Everything from bien cuit, or well done, to practically raw gives nuance and personality to these burgers and their respective garnishes. “This is where you come at the end of the day for drinks with your friends,” says Tanguy, “Or you come with your partner for an evening together. But we also get a lot of families during the day and workers during lunch. It’s something for everyone.”
That sense of “something for everyone” hasn’t gone unnoticed. Paris Worldwide magazine raves about the little hip restaurants, calling it the best burgers in town. And the word has spread across generational lines. Nights might see hip 30 and 40-something professionals dining and drinking together before they head out to a club or a movie. Fans of Paris St Germain football club might choose this as their meeting point before they rush to Stade de France. And in the middle of the day a host of 9-to-5ers seem to wobble in with a look of relief to be escaping the office for something savory.
It doesn’t end there. Maison has launched Maison Food Market. Each weekend it brings its brand of haute burger and finely rendered menus to an open-air beer garden called Sonnenkönig. Animated by DJ sets, terraces under the sun and a crowd of people who love to sit outside and feast, the food market has turned into a phenomenon all its own.
What’s next? Tanguy smiles, leans in as if revealing a cheeky little secret, and intimates, “Well we’re looking at opening some more locations…And one day, who knows? Maybe the U.S.”
