Picture:  Partridge and Woodcock.  Claude Monet, 1872. Oil on Canvas.

Here is a quote from A.J. Liebling on eating in Paris in 1939, after the war began but before the Germans arrived.  When Les Halles still overflowed:

Of all the dishes that M. Bouillon made for me [he nearly had the place to himself], I remember with most affection a salmis of woodcock in Armagnac with which I astounded a French friend — a champagne man — whom I entertained in the little restaurant.  I’m sure that it was the best I’ve had in my life, and M. Bouillon could do almost as well with a partridge, a beef stew, or a blood pudding with mashed potatoes….  M. Bouillon was my discovery, and the enjoyment of a woodcock signed “Bouillon” was an irreplaceable privilege. – A.J. Liebling, Between Meals

The restaurant did not survive the war.  As Liebling says, “To conduct a restaurant successfully under the Occupation had called for a gift of connivance that poor M. Bouillon didn’t have.”

We do not live in wartime, but after you run out of peanut butter and need to find a great place to eat in Washington check out our site.  It is a new dining guide, with over 200 recommended restaurants in D.C., displayed in both LIST and MAP format.  You can follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for updates (see top and bottom of page for links).