Eating (well) with (good) live music, a trend worth adopting

Between the highly sought-after party restaurants and their dj sets, the restaurant-cabarets with dubious menus or the jazz clubs where the initiated sip a bad cocktail, there's little or no room for serious proposals, either culinary or musical. Two Parisian addresses have taken this concept on board, and what they have in common is that they were created by men who have nothing to do with the restaurant business.

In both cases, it was their love of music that led them to come up with a venue they couldn't find in the French capital.

Easy service

" In truth, it's a very Parisian problem," observes Sébastien Prat, co-founder of Le Melville restaurant and head of a major Parisian law firm. " In London, Tokyo, New York... this balance has been found in many places, some of them legendary. I think it's more a question of culture than will. The Parisian public is used to going either to a jazz club or to a concert, and they go to restaurants above all for the quality of the food. If there's music, that's fine, but nobody really pays attention to it. So Sébastien Prat and his partner Laurent Macherey set out to create the hybrid place of their dreams. They came across a restaurant on rue Jean Mermoz, a flash in the pan which, for obscure reasons, only lasted three weeks, but where they already had chef Malcolm Ecolasse (ex Piège, Eleni Group and Moma Group), whom they decided to keep. " We had a great feeling about him. But like all young chefs, his cooking was a bit complicated. We loved it, but it wasn't at all what we wanted to do. We told him: you can let your imagination run wild. It has to be inventive, surprising like our music, but compatible with a concert. In other words, easy to serve, eat and share. From the outset, he's been involved in all our decisions, and in the end, his work is just as valued as those with whom he shares the bill. The Melville's menu features a list of sweet and savory dishes with a variety of influences (chimichurri octopus, miso lacquered ribs, Japchouka...) flirting with finger food. In such a context, it's hard to let the usual sequence (starter-main course-dessert) of a classic menu run its course. You have to know how to stretch out the tasting, frame it with a real cocktail offer, and propose dishes that can follow one another according to guests' appetites throughout the evening.

Great acoustics

For Radwan Hoteit, finance specialist and founder of Les Bascules restaurant, it was the same desire to create the place he felt was missing in Paris. " A place where you could listen to good music, with good acoustics, and eat well at the same time. Some places program very good musicians, but the food and drink are very bad, or you have to listen religiously to the music, without being allowed to talk ".

He starts by finding the venue, a stone's throw from the Bourse, renovating it so that it's beautiful but not snobbish, and already at this stage enlists the help of an acoustic engineer to ensure good sound quality for the music played live or broadcast.

" As for the cooking, I tell myself that food that's too heavy, or too traditional, isn't my thing, and I have the weakness of thinking that it isn't that of many people today either ". He opts for his heart's cuisine, Lebanese, but revised by chef Melissa Nassif (trained at the Institut Paul Bocuse, ex-Prince of Wales and independent pastry chef), who designed the dishes and trained the kitchen team. A varied menu of hot and cold dishes to share, perfectly matched with a selection of cocktails.

For the founders, it's a new profession to learn, that of restaurateur, and curiously, coming from a different background perhaps allows them to manage differently. " I don't have any restaurant experience," continues Sébastien Prat, "but on the other hand, with a firm of 300 people, I have real managerial experience. I know what it's like to manage teams based on essential principles such as high standards, but also respect, benevolence and dialogue. To date, some people have left Le Melville, for personal reasons, but none to go elsewhere.

Good communication

It's when it comes to communication that things have proved more complicated, as the two creators admit: they had to find the right angle.

" It's difficult to position something hybrid in the world of the Internet, Google and search engines. " Explains Radwan Hoteit, " You type bar, restaurant, you type jazz, but there's no word to describe our concept. We have to compensate for this with intelligent communication, particularly on our Instagram account, which has to highlight all these aspects ". Sébastien Prat confirms, " When we first opened, our communications were geared towards gastronomy, which didn't really fit in with our concept. People came because they knew we ate well, they were very happy with the food, but at the same time, they thought the music was a bit loud! And then there were those who came for the programming, but found all the people eating around them strange. It took us a long time to establish our image. Today, we realize that what works best is both word-of-mouth and networking. Why is that? Because on the networks, the people who come tell us about their experience. So those who read them understand exactly what's going on. What's most significant, and a good reflection of what we offer, are the comments received on Google. They're great, we've got a great rating, but none of the comments are limited to "nice place for music" or "they eat really well". They're all all-encompassing, saying that it's an incredible mix of food, music, atmosphere and service. And we're really happy about that!

Les Bascules

• Jazz evenings on Thursdays
• Duo evenings Saturdays
• lesbascules.fr

Le Melville

• Jazz and world music evenings Tuesday to Saturday
• lemelville.fr