Tasting Georgia in Paris at L’Arret by the Grey

Foolishly, I was excited to see deviled eggs on the menu at L’Arrêt by the Grey, the relatively new restaurant in Paris’ 7th Arrondissement from acclaimed Savannah-based chef Mashama Bailey and her business partner, Johno Morisano. The pair rose to prominence with the Grey in Savannah, where Bailey won the 2022 James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, the foundation’s top national honor for an individual chef.

This was just our second real meal in the City of Light and I naively assumed I wouldn’t be seeing this classic Southern appetizer on any other menus. Little did I know that oeufs mayonnaise, a favorite of French country cuisine and a close cousin to the deviled egg, would be on nearly every bistro and brasserie menu I saw. Over the course of my five-day trip to Paris, I ate gussied-up hard-boiled eggs like I was at a college football tailgate.

Deviled eggs made with smoked fish and trout roe at L'Arret by the Grey. (Henri Hollis/AJC)

This was just one of many parallels between Southern cooking and classic French cuisine that Bailey has noticed in her years of visiting and working in France.

Both traditions have close ties to regional agriculture and a deep respect for pork in all its forms. There’s a similar dedication to seasonality, stubborn adherence to tradition over trends and appreciation for a slower pace of life.

L'Arret by the Grey in Paris' 7th Arrondissement. (Henri Hollis/AJC)

Bailey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she first made the connection between Southern and French cooking in the mid-2000s when she attended La Varenne, a cooking school in Burgundy.

“I was in France, coming from New York City, and it reminded me of visiting my grandmother in Waynesboro, Georgia,” Bailey said.

The dining room at L'Arret by the Grey in Paris' 7th Arrondissement. (Alice Casenave/Courtesy of L'Arret by the Grey)

Bailey’s sense of a spiritual connection between the French countryside and the American South gives L’Arrêt a personality that feels completely natural, even if the combination appears unusual to others. From my perspective as an American, L’Arrêt felt like a French restaurant with an authentic Southern influence, not a tourist gimmick or an American-themed oddity.

The team behind L’Arrêt, which opened last summer, makes a serious effort to appeal to the locals.

A table-setting at L'Arret by the Grey. (Alice Casenave/Courtesy of L'Arret by the Grey)

“We’re just trying to keep it casual, and we’re also listening,” Bailey told the AJC. “My business partner... he keeps his ear to the street.”

The restaurant tends to attract more French customers during the day, when it offers multiple affordable lunch combinations called “formules” that are popular in Paris. When my wife and I visited for a mid-afternoon meal, it seemed most of the patrons in the tightly packed dining room were speaking French, and regulars repeatedly popped in to speak to the staff or grab a quick coffee.

A large table in the dining room of L'Arret by the Grey. (Alice Casenave/Courtesy of L'Arret by the Grey)

L’Arrêt is centrally located in Paris, just across the Seine and about a 15-minute walk from the Louvre. The restaurant’s subtle green and gold art deco design touches are a clear visual link to its sumptuous big sister in Savannah, though L’Arrêt is much more casual than the Grey.

On my visit, the cooking had a precision and devotion to local produce that I recognized from meals at the Grey. The deviled eggs, with smoked fish mixed into the yolk and topped with orange trout roe, were the best version of oeufs mayonnaise I tried. A simple salad made with an anchovy vinaigrette was elevated by stunning white and red winter lettuces. My Southern chicken schnitzel with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy looked as if it were lifted out of a Norman Rockwell diner painting, while my wife’s seriole (known as amberjack in English) sashimi could have been sliced by a sushi chef.

A Southern-style chicken schnitzel with mashed potatoes and gravy at L'Arret by the Grey in Paris. (Henri Hollis/AJC)

L’Arrêt’s menu had a small selection of French desserts, but it was impossible to resist the pecan pie, which could hold its own at any county fair in Georgia.

Opening L’Arrêt was a challenging, multiyear process for Bailey and Morisano, and Bailey said she still feels like the restaurant is a work in progress. Even so, it has already achieved a delicate balance as a serious but casual dining destination that equally honors both its French and Southern influences.

Bailey said the challenge of running restaurants on two different continents has been a difficult one, but she appreciates that it pushes her outside her comfort zone. When we spoke Wednesday, she was at the Grey but about to depart for Paris.

A view of the sunset from the Pont Neuf bridge not far from L'Arret by the Grey in Paris. (Henri Hollis/AJC)