Ahhhh, Paris. How I love you. Especially in winter. There may be frozen dogshit everywhere, rude locals, lots of attractions shut and every cabbie, street sweeper and toilet cleaner on strike but it still enchants me.
Every arrondissement is different and has its quirks. The metro has always been and continues to be brilliant. You still get charged less for your coffee standing at the bar versus sitting down. There are at least 5 boulangeries within 50 metres of wherever you are lodging and they are all open at sparrow fart. And, as for the rude locals, there was only one with all others during our stay friendly and going out of their way to help me.
The barman at Le Supercoin was no different.
A perennial burden for the travelling backoftheferry correspondent, likely shared with those who write for the Michelin guide and its ilk, is the necessity to be happy with one’s own company. Sampling crafties is a solo affair not tolerated by spouses (or spouse equivalents) or offspring. I’ve got quite used to humming to myself when sampling alone in a fashion that does not indicate either insanity or a touch of incest in the back catalogue.
Easy to drink alone when there’s no one else
So it was with relief that when I arrived at Le Supercoin, touted as one of Paris’s best craft beer venues, and it was empty, the barman was knowledgeable and recognised when I wanted to chit chat about the beer and when I wanted to start humming.
Yes, I could have loosed a clip and not hit a soul but the three beers on tap were pretty damn good. It’s a shame I went about tasting them arse about. I came out of the gates with the Nice to Meet You Double IPA. A big one that then put everything else in the shade due to the hops shutting down the surface of my tongue. So I did not do justice to the Hallertau Cascase by Deck & Donohue and the Koutska desitka (pilsner) that followed but they were still pretty good.
Just a note – the opening hours for Le Supercoin are a bit odd and the website is currently dead. Worth checking opening hours via their Twitter handle when you are in Paris.
Le Supercoin
Address:3 Rue Baudelique, 75018 Paris (click for map)
Metro: Jules Joffrin
back of the ferry 