WORLD’S SMALLEST RESTAURANT.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17570, 8 March 1929, Page 6

WORLD’S SMALLEST RESTAURANT.

At the loot of Montmartre, in a narrow street near Notre .Dame do Loretto, Paris, there is a restaurant so smaiV that the waiter—there an only one—can reach into the kitchen with one hand and serve a table with the -other. It is said to be the smallest in the world. Certainly it is the smallest in Paris.

Normally there is room for 12 to sit comfortably at the three small tables' squeezed in between the bar (for there is a bar) and the opposite wall. In emergencies, however, the proprietor—who has been compelled by the competition -of larger and drauglitier eating-houses down the street to change his slogan from “Dinners for a. Dozen” to “Dinners for Sixteen"—fits in a fourth table in a corner and takes four more knives and forks out of the cupboard..

His menus, he claims proudly, are just a-s varied and his cellar is every bit as well stocked as are those of his rivals. “And voici,” lie will tell you. with much gesticulation, if you ask him, “the advantage of a limited clientele. Here you can be sure -you will have what you order—and at once. You ask for a chop—-alors, your chop comes to you crackling and succulent, done to a turn. Your fried potatoes and mushrooms remain in their pan until you are ready for them —they do not lose their crisp tastiness between the kitchen and your plate. Ah, is it not true. Monsieur, that too many diners, as well us too many cooks, may spoil .a- dinner?" The dozen “regulars’’ who eat here daily have never to wait for the waiter. Do they want some more bread ?—the larder door is within easy reach,. Some more gravy?—the handle of the ladle peeps round the kitchen door. Some wine?—the bar is before them. Menus as appetising as any to be had elsewhere for the same price are provided, and the smallness of the restaur-ant does not imply a corresponding heaviness of bills. For a shilling you may have-a satisfying meat which seems bigger because you eat it in a room smaller than the Saloon of an air liner.

Few among the thousands who stream daily past the door towards the glitteling night-clubs “up the hill,” notice this tiny place where, nevertheless, you may have the most delicious coffee you have ever tasted and superb Canembert cheese. It is worth a visit, if only to meet the proprietor.