Anthony Bourdain did his 100th show from Paris on this:

Le Comptoir in the 6th
Frenchie (in the 12th, I think)
Chateaubriand (don't remember where)

Also, GQ did a story on this recently and included Spring (I think in the 1st now)

Chefs who run small places, not looking for Michelin stars but produce amazing food.

Certainly, Christian Constant was the first, but these are younger, unknown (at first) who just go by word of mouth and terrific cuisine that doesn't take 3 hours and 10 servers to do. L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon is considered by some to be the first....bistronomy is the name for the trend.

I must have seen it on Anthony Bourdain! Thank you denisea. Bistronomy...hmmm.

WOW Frenchie must be the place I was thinking of. The reviews are wonderful. Now let's call and see if I can get a reservation!

Frenchie is in the 2nd.....lots of phone calls but finally got a reservation for September.
We're also going to Hidden Kitchen in September, also planned waaaay in advance!

We had a wonderful meal at Les Papilles this May. It is a small wine store/restaurant in the 5th that offers one 4 course meal that everyone gets. It was beyond delicious and the owner/chef was a great guy and you could reserve online instead of endlessly calling. If you want lots of info on small restaurants in Paris and everything else go to chowhound.com French messages boards.

We had a fabulous meal at Frenchies last year. This year our friends who live in Paris called and called for us and never even got anyone to pick up the phone. I believe they only answer the phone for a couple hours each day. Check their website. Its gotten a huge amount of press (I understand it has a great PR person) and has made it quite difficult to get into it. Its very tiny.

Our daughter, who speaks French (and I do not) called repeatedly for the Frenchie reservation. They only accept calls for reservations 2 hours/day and most of the calls go to voicemail telling you to call back. She'll be with us in September so persisted and finally got a live person....hope the experience is worth her phone bill!

Is this the article you are thinking of .....

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/04/18...8prixfixe.html

Yep, Frenchie is notoriously tough to get into. Le Comptoir is also tough...hotel guests do get priority.

I also think they went to Papillion (Les Papillion) on the Anthony Bourdain show with Eric Ripert and Joel Robuchon

Well, I was afraid of that (hard to get into). Probably starting too late but will give it a shot. The website says to call between between 3 and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday to make a reservation. Let's see...that would be 6 a.m. PST! J'aimerais faire une réservation pour deux personnes.....svp

There are some other good ideas here!

Humm, doesn't say they serve lunch on the website but the NYTs article says it does.

Thanks so much for all the wonderful restaurant ideas!

We had lunch @ Frenchie's -- only the time we could get in. That was winter 2010. Lunch @ Le Comptoir is excellent also. If u get there a bit b4 12 u can usually get in right away. If not try to get there around 2ish and u'll get a table as the first group finishes. We waited maybe 15 minutes in June for a table when we arrived around 1:30 or so.
Happy eating!

I went to Frenchie's this May to try to get a reservation and the chef told me they did not do lunch anymore. They also were completely booked for the rest of the week. Chowhound.com message boards have threads on trying to call Frenchie's. Not easy.

Right, tried to call 5 times this morning and got the answering machine. Kind of rude to have an answering machine that says call back and doesn't take a message. I would rather get a busy signal and at least not have to pay for the call.

it's small and they are always busy, so they aren't worried about the phone or answering machine...don't take it personally...they just know the restaurant will be full

I do realize that denise.

Bookmarking

Tony Bourdain lives in my building here on the UES and is a great guy! I'll tell him I plan to visit "his" Paris restaurants.

On the corner of Rue de Bievre and Bld St Germain is a new restaurant wine bar (same owners as Jadis). The name escapes me, but this looked like a great local place, small chef owned.

Also Vivant in the 10th, Jaja in Le Marais is fantastic, small place, modern French. Mon Jules, Qui Plume la Lune in the 11th,
L'Office in the 9th, L'Aromatik in the 9th, Le Pantruche in the 9th, Le Verre Volé in the 10th, L'Auberge du 15th in the 13th arrondissment. These are excellent small mom and pop places

Oh Gekko- glad to know that and I LOVE Anthony Bourdain(not on Tony basis with him). His books are awesome!

T Paxe- thanks for the restaurant suggestions