Le Beaujolais (Bar, Restaurant)

A tip-off from the Institut Francais brought me down a side street off Charring Cross Road to the red fronted Le Beaujolais bar. Established first as a restaurant in 1972 and eight years later becoming a bar, it is the oldest French wine bar in London, but management prefer word of mouth to London listings.

The bar is tiny. The ten or so tables are occupied and the L shaped counter lined with regulars. Empty bottles hang decoratively from the wooden beams across the ceiling. Dated ‘Ricard’ posters crowd the walls and blackboards announce the availability of edible sustenance for under £10, including Pate de Campagne or Toulouse sausage. A panel hangs provocatively above the bar counter tempting you to Vin du Mois at £15 a bottle.

The wine bar attracts young and old, Francophone and Francophile. And the chatting flows with the wine. My neighbour, a 25-year-old, working in media, sips Chardonnay. He’s been pulling up a barstool here for 6 years.” It‘s always packed, always different,” he explains.

Arsenal supporter, Pascal Perry, has managed the bar for three years and is offering out salmon pate on toast. Originally from the Massif Centrale he still talks about his home country in superlatives but states that London is ‘something else’. His passion for blues music echoes over the sound system.

Squeeze into Le Beaujolais and you will inhale the esprit of a laid-back Gallic weekend away. But for those who consider the French and English as different as chalk and Camembert then best go elsewhere: as Michele Grondin, co-owner of the bar says: “Le Beaujolais, c’est l’amitie.” I’ll drink to that!...read more