A Sunny Parisian Cafe Inside a 19th-Century Artists Studio
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Eat Here
A Bright New Cafe in Pariss Bourdelle Museum
By Zoey Poll
This spring, the recently renovated Bourdelle Museum in Pariss Montparnasse district opened a luminous new cafe-restaurant, Le Rhodia, named after the French sculptor Antoine Bourdelles daughter. The spare, daffodil yellow dining room occupies the second story of a 19th-century artists studio where Rhodia Bourdelle and her husband, the Art Deco interior designer Michel Dufet, once lived. We wanted it to feel like entering someones apartment, says Marc-Antoine Servella, the co-founder of the Parisian architecture studio SAME, who oversaw the cafes design. He furnished Le Rhodia with a mix of midcentury flea market finds and custom pieces commissioned from French artisans in materials ranging from travertine to oak, while preserving a few original details like a wood-burning stove and a large oculus window (designed by Dufet in the spirit of the ocean liner cabin dcor for which he was best known). Museumgoers can also dine outside on the mezzanine terrace next to a colonnade of watchful bronze busts. The menu offers refreshing fare, with culinary references to Bourdelles hometown in the southwest of France and a Latin American influence a homage, says the French chef Jean-Ren Chassignol, to the dozens of students from Peru, Chile and Argentina who apprenticed with Bourdelle in these ateliers. Dishes, which skew on the lighter side, include a black-bean pure with pickled beets and corn nuts, and seasonal vegetable empanadas. Pastries, like the Rhodia brioche with orange-blossom cream or the honey-and-thyme-infused Madeleine dAntoine, are served all day. instagram.com/lerhodia_bourdelle/.
