Paris, Arizona

 

This one’s for my fellow Phoenicians: I was tickled to death when my old Arizona Republic friend/colleague Francine was able to find this 40-year-old menu from the beloved French Corner restaurant, which my brother Bill introduced me to in 1987, the same year I first visited the City of Lights to attend the French Open. (For my birthday that June he bought me my treasured Jaz Paris wristwatch.)

Although I can't confirm that it's gotten much better, Phoenix felt like a cultural wasteland in the 1980s to this aspiring poseur. So there was something extraordinary about stepping into this cozy bistro located in the Uptown Plaza -- North Central Avenue and Camelback Road, just south from the nearly as exotic International House of Pancakes(!) -- and pretending you'd been transported across the Atlantic. (Full disclosure: There may have been a beret involved.) 

Adding to the authenticity was the fact that unlike virtually every other place in the Valley of the Sun, the French Corner didn't check IDs, which meant my friend Kristen and I could get sauced before we'd turned 21 -- exactly what two angst-ridden New Wave geeks needed to survive in a 110-degree conservative hellhole.

I don't know how long the joint lasted -- I moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and was never there again. (I'm told it later became The Eggery.)  But this little blast from the past -- en français -- made my day. Please contact me if you ever visited. 

Such a step up from Caf' Casino, a French-style cafeteria near Los Arcos Mall in Scottsdale, that was a mandatory French class field trip in high school and college!

My precious watch from my brother, the first "nice" thing I ever received. xo