TABLES FOR TWO

Jody Williams has gone Gallic with Buvette, a wine-and-small-plates establishment in a cozy sliver of a space that once housed the bare-bones Southern institution the Pink Tea Cup...The room, styled to evoke a Provence kitchen—with carefully arranged baskets, rolling pins, mezzalunas—is romantic, at times verging on precious...

A barrage of little things with big flavor followed: a glass jar of salty, creamy chicken-liver mousse; a crock of brandade de morue, also salty, and just a tad fishy; poireaux en vinaigrette, leeks laced with mustard; savory, meaty lentils with kale. After a while, you get used to the diminutive proportions and start to look forward to having just a bite or two of everything—such as the exemplary “viandes,” which might include creamy rabbit potpie; coq au vin, deeply infused with wine, soft and tender; and perhaps the smallest cassoulet in the world. 

A buvette is a place to eat or drink at any time of the day, and that is exactly what Williams provides. In the mornings, it’s a casual meeting place for neighborhood folks looking for a little politesse and Gruyère (not to mention a La Colombe café au lait). At night, what Buvette lacks in floor space it makes up for in good will. After an extended round of musical chairs at the back communal table one evening, a charming waitress made amends, telling a group, “Dessert is obviously on us.”

from The New Yorker
by Shauna Lyon