Dining for night-owls
Where can you dine after 10.30 p.m. ? In the off-season, it’s not always easy to find a table after a show. So follow the guide !
One would think that Cannes, city of festivals and congresses, would boast a wide array of restaurants for night-owls. That needs qualifying ! While some pizzerias serve relatively late, it’s not uncommon to be gently shown the door after 10 p.m. For a dinner “at all hours”, there are two solutions : Le Fouquet's Cannes and Le Palm Square. Based on the Parisian model, the chic “brasserie” run by the Barrière Group proposes a mix of traditional local cuisine, delicious “bourgeois” dishes and Mediterranean recipes with appealing references to Italy. The décor is all in flamboyant red. On Les Allées, Le Palm Square offers an oriental ambiance and subdued lighting, with the Mediterranean in all its diversity on your plate : supreme of oven-baked sea-bass, braised lamb casserole with “pesto” and potato “confit”... For those who are starving and can’t wait past a certain hour, this address suggests Alba, a “brasserie” where pasta and pizzas are served at high speed. In Nice, the Opera and Theatre serve as strategic points. Rue Saint-François-de-Paule therefore welcomes late revellers in highly contrasting style, at Le Grand Balcon and La Voglia. Le Grand Balcon is a small theatre with rich fabrics and drapes, bookshelves and reproductions of old paintings. Lovers of intimacy and cocooning praise Marc Hamel’s offerings which range with the same success from southern accents to hints of exoticism. At La Voglia, a different style, a different pace. Here, the waiters perform a continuous and efficient ballet, and all generations rub shoulders around Italian-Niçois dishes. On the Promenade des Arts, Lou Balico is a well-known institution. The décor is still delightfully old-fashioned and the menu tirelessly proposes classic regional fare. Here you’ll feast on zucchini flowers fried in batter, cod with creamy garlic sauce, rabbit with black olive paste and homemade beef stew with ravioli. Then for those still looking for a show after the show, Flo Nice is a must. This Niçois “brasserie” with its oyster bar is always full, though it also serves calf’s brain and tongue with mayonnaise sauce, thin slices of brawn, rack of lamb and egg-plant conserve. Everything is prepared before the clients who can watch the cooks as they work live. And what about Monaco ? Every evening (and every night), the Principality also sees night-owls pouring out of its theatres and casinos. All those who like the decor at the Zebra Square should make the most of it ! Its green armchairs will soon be but a memory. The restaurant is in fact reviewing its interior layout and will reveal its revamp in March. On the menu, nothing has changed and you can still enjoy risotto with truffles, sea-bream with sesame or shrimps with Indian spices. First prize among late-night restos goes to Tip Top, which brings down the curtain at 6 a.m. The cuisine is traditional (pizzas, salads...) and you come across people just leaving conventions or night-clubs and gamblers who come to celebrate their winnings or find consolation while hoping for better days.
Carnet
Flo Nice, 4 rue Sacha Guitry, Nice (04 93 13 38 38). Platter of seafood : from 49 €. Opened until midnight. Fouquet’s Cannes, 10 La Croisette, Cannes (04 92 98 77 05). Carte : approx 70 €. Service until 23h30. La Voglia, 2 rue Saint-François de Paule, Nice (04 93 80 99 16). Approx 55 €. Last orders at 23h. Le Grand Balcon, 10 rue Saint-François de Paule, Nice (04 93 62 60 74). Approx 50 €. Service until 23h. Lou Balico, 20-22 avenue Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Nice (04 93 85 93 71). Carte : approx 40 €. Service until 23h30. Palm Square, 1 Allée de la Liberté, Cannes (04 93 06 78 27). Approx 55 €. Service until 23h. Tip Top, 11 avenue des Spélugues, Monaco (00 377 93 50 69 13). From 25 €. Open until 6 am. Zebra Square, Grimaldi Forum, 10 avenue Princesse Grace, Monaco (00 377 99 99 25 50). Carte : approx 60 €. Service until midnight.
By Cécile Olivéro
