Café Coutume
What: Café Coutume Where: 47 rue de Babylone 75007 (7ème arrondissement) Web: http://www.coutumecafe.com/ When: Mon -Fri 8am-7pm; Sa...
What: Café Coutume
Where: 47 rue de Babylone 75007 (7ème arrondissement)
Web: http://www.coutumecafe.com/
When: Mon-Fri 8am-7pm; Sat-Sun 10am-7pm
Métro: St. François Xavier (line 13); Sèvres-Babylone (lines 10 and 12)
Price for a café crème: ~3.50E (slightly cheaper for takeaway)
Food: Wide range
*****NOW OPEN ON MONDAYS*****
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Check out this article from Le Monde on the new wave of coffee in Paris, featuring Café Coutume!
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For a long time Café Coutume was the only good coffee joint in Paris I really bothered going to, since the coffee and food are fantastic, it is on my métro line, Café Lomi hadn't yet expanded their operation beyond roasting and I was unaware of Télescope. It's also pretty much the only place to get good coffee on the left bank.
This place was opened by two guys, a Frenchman named Antoine and an Australian, Tom, (a good BBC article can be found here) in 2011. The café itself is huge, with lots of seating and a big roasting section at the back. They sell a whole variety of delicious beans, serve cold drip coffee, and seem to have gone for a "coffee laboratory" look with tap water coming in chemist's flasks, coffee variety abbreviations resembling element symbols ("Gu" for Guatemala) and a big poster of the parts of the tongue responsible for the various tastes.
They have good breakfast options, the type we Australians are used to back at home, as well as the kind of mini-viennoiserie assortments the French do so well. Lunch is a big deal here, with the standard menu du jour option you get most French cafés (entrée+main/main+dessert for 8-15E and a drink on the side) , and the food is generally extremely good. There is quite a crowd at lunch time, so get there early or prepare to have to wait to be seated.
The café is located in the 7ème, which is home to Les Invalides, le Musée Rodin, and other such sightly sights. Walk east along rue de Babylone and you get to St. Germain, full of fur coats and Ralph Laurent socks. You'll eventually get to Saint Sulpice, which is the second biggest church in Paris after Noter-Dayme, and boasts a rather impressive organ. Otherwise head down past Les Invalides and go straight along to Ecole Militaire and then the Eiffel Tower. On the way back head up rue St Dominique for a bit of window licking.
I'm pretty sure there's wifi at the café, but otherwise strike up a conversation with one of the many friendly staff members who work there. Latest I heard was that they were going to open up a new one elsewhere in Paris, so either it's there and I don't know about it or it's not yet come to fruition.
Now, go and sample some of their masterful creations!
-Good Coffee In Paris
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