Everyone’s Dining in Belleville

When friends and business partners Kevin Deulio and Marius de Ponfilly began searching for a restaurant space in Paris, the Belleville neighborhood—covering the 19th and 20th arrondissements—checked all the right boxes.

After spending eight years managing Bar Vendôme at the Ritz Paris, Deulio was ready to leave the upscale atmosphere behind and create a neighborhood Mytoury for locals. He imagined a place where nearby business owners, residents, and artists could enjoy fresh oysters and spicy margaritas, gather around a raw milk cheese board after work, or indulge in one of chef de Ponfilly’s seafood creations.

“We appreciated the lack of pretension in the neighborhood,” Deulio shares. “Everyone is approachable, and there’s a genuine sense of community. That mattered to us.”

De Ponfilly, a former chef at Clamato—a small plates seafood restaurant from the team behind the Michelin-starred Septime—was also keen to avoid a restaurant with formal white tablecloths and expensive wine lists. It was 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic was still impacting daily life in France, and lockdowns were severely affecting restaurants; the duo believed that depending on tourists to fill their dining space was a recipe for failure.

Thus, they launched Soces (slang for “buddies”), a casual French bistro that has notably boosted foot traffic to this serene corner of the city. Critics have been particularly enamored with de Ponfilly’s fresh and innovative dishes, such as thinly sliced raw cuttlefish with kumquat pesto and mussels topped with Perugina sausage in chipotle beurre blanc.

Soces is among several new establishments in Belleville that have transformed the eastern part of the city into Paris’s most vibrant food and drink hub.

“Many of the best new restaurant openings in recent years have been in the 19th or 20th arrondissements,” notes Christine Doublet, deputy director of the French restaurant guide Le Fooding. “Exciting developments are happening there.” In the 2024 edition of Le Fooding’s list of the best bars and restaurants in France, released last November, three of the five award winners in Paris, including Soces, were located in these arrondissements.

In contrast to the polished, upscale city center and luxurious arrondissements to the west, the sidewalks of this working-class neighborhood buzz with elderly shoppers dragging their carts and chatting in Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Arabic, alongside young, stylish Parisians coming and going from the metro station. This area is a haven for sculptors, painters, photographers, and ceramists, as well as the studios, workshops, and galleries (and their colorful facades) where they showcase their work.

While Belleville is often recognized as one of Paris’s Chinatowns today, the neighborhood was originally settled by Armenians, Greeks, and Polish Jews in the early 20th century. Following World War II, when many local Jews were deported, Sephardic Jews from Tunisia and Algeria began to settle here.

It wasn’t until the 1970s and ’80s that a significant influx of Chinese and Southeast Asian immigrants arrived. Today, many families in the area have roots in Wenzhou, a port city in southeastern China, and several restaurants in Belleville are named after this city.

The waves of immigration in the neighborhood are evident in its vibrant food scene. Tunisian and Algerian spots like Di-Napoli and Le Tais serve up brik pastries, couscous, and fried bread fricassé sandwiches, alongside Chinese Mytouries such as Ravioli Nord Est, known for its pork jiaozi dumplings, and Best Tofu, which specializes in fresh, soft tofu dishes. Sprawling Asian grocery stores offer taro roots, fresh mustard leaves, and bitter melon, while Latin American, African, and West Indian greengrocers overflow with chayote, papayas, and salted cod.

However, the neighborhood’s demographics are shifting. Young middle-class families, urban professionals, and the city’s creative class—collectively referred to as “bobos” (short for bourgeois-bohemian)—are relocating eastward due to rising rental and real estate prices in the city center. These newcomers are attracting restaurateurs and bar owners seeking fresh markets away from oversaturated areas.

Historically, Belleville has been one of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods; according to 2021 data, nearly 25% of residents in the 19th arrondissement live in poverty, with median incomes in both the 19th and 20th arrondissements falling thousands of euros below the city average.

Alexandre Souksavanh experienced the effects of this economic divide firsthand while growing up in Belleville in the ’90s. As one of three children of the owners of Lao Siam, a local institution since 1985 known for its Thai and Laotian cuisine, Souksavanh recalls that many Parisians linked the area with petty crime and drug problems.

“I don’t think anyone wants to live in a neighborhood where syringes are found in sandboxes or where going out after dark feels unsafe,” he remarks. “No one desires to live in a place like that.”

As the neighborhood evolves and new residents arrive, increasing housing costs and gentrification pose a significant risk to long-standing families. Nonetheless, thanks in part to extensive government funding for public housing, Belleville has managed to preserve some of its existing communities while welcoming newcomers, maintaining the rich tradition of cultural layering that has defined the area.

“It’s not like the Marais, where locals have left and only tourists and Airbnbs remain,” Souksavanh notes. “Here, there’s still a sense of community, where genuine Parisians live and work.”

The roots of this latest transformation can be traced back to the establishment of Combat in 2017. While the bar turned Belleville into a notable cocktail hub for people across the city, it also appeals to locals with its warm, relaxed atmosphere. In a bright, airy setting adorned with hanging greenery, the predominantly female bartending team, led by mixologist Margot Lecarpentier, crafts unique drinks like the Musette, which combines green curry with gin, cilantro, lemon, raspberry, and egg whites.

This shift has also opened doors for bars like Kissproof Belleville, which launched in 2022 and received accolades from Le Fooding this year. Lebanese entrepreneurs Micky Abou Merhy and Elie Nehme aimed to address a noticeable gap in Paris’s nightlife by creating a venue that honors Belleville’s working-class heritage. While the city is filled with upscale bars, Nehme expressed their desire to establish a traditional dive bar, a welcoming space focused on hospitality, music, and a sense of irreverence.

A typical evening at Kissproof kicks off at 6 p.m., when the after-work crowd filters into the cozy, 380-square-foot bar for a Dia de los Muertos boilermaker: a twist on the Mexican michelada featuring beer, Clamato, lime, and Tajín, served with a shot of mezcal. As the night progresses, chefs and bartenders stop by to relax with a selection of absinthes.

“When we checked out the location, it was purely instinct,” Nehme reflects on the neighborhood. Like their other bars in Beirut—Vyvyan’s, the Terrible Prince, and Kissproof Beirut—this spot is situated away from the tourist hustle.

“To me, Belleville is magical,” shares Luis Andrade, chef at Le Cheval d’Or, another new favorite in the 19th arrondissement, where Parc des Buttes-Chaumont and Parc de Belleville offer stunning green spaces and sweeping views. “It’s perched on a hill, and you can glimpse the Eiffel Tower from a distance. Its name even means beautiful,” he adds, referencing the word “belle.”

Belleville and its vicinity have always been among Andrade’s preferred spots. He, along with Cheval d’Or’s sommelier (and Andrade’s wife) Crislaine Medina, and their business partner Nadim Smair, were frequent visitors of Le Bar Fleuri in the 19th, known for serving the city’s most affordable roast chicken and fries at just 6.86 euros (under $8), a price that has remained unchanged since 2002.

Staying true to its roots as a Chinese Mytoury, Cheval d’Or features a menu that creatively combines French and Chinese cuisines, infusing Asian elements into classic French dishes and vice versa. The croque-madame—a grilled ham and cheese sandwich topped with mornay sauce and a fried egg—receives an innovative twist with Chinese prawn toast, featuring prawn mousse between brioche slices, finished with a fried egg, mayonnaise, and chili crisp. Chef Hanz Gueco also reimagines crispy Beijing duck with a French twist, serving it with crepes instead of traditional wheat pancakes and pairing it with an orange sauce that echoes the classic French duck à l’orange.

Cheval d’Or isn’t the only recent establishment honoring Belleville’s Asian roots. Doublet also highlights Bang Bang, which opened in 2022, where Colombian chef Carlos Peñarredonda and Danish chef Mads Christensen serve a vibrant and unapologetically spicy Asian-inspired menu in a colorful, casual environment. Their offerings might include cheddar and kimchi croquettes with jalapeño-lime mayo, claypot red curry chicken, or fish sauce-glazed barbecued octopus.

In addition to these contemporary tributes, Souksavanh and his brothers Frédéric and Nicolas have contributed their own legacy. In 2019, they opened a sister restaurant to Lao Siam next door, Ama Siam, featuring comforting Thai dishes the siblings cherished growing up, such as khao man gai (poached chicken in broth, ginger, fermented black bean sauce, garlic, and coriander) and moo palo (five-spice pork belly with wild rice and a soft-boiled egg).

As a child, Souksavanh dreamed of escaping the neighborhood. Over the past 15 years, he has witnessed Belleville skillfully balance the arrival of new bakeries, bars, wine shops, cafes, and restaurants while maintaining its lively, cosmopolitan spirit. Now, he feels grateful he never left.

'The neighborhood has evolved,' he remarks, 'and now I truly enjoy living here.'

Vivian Song is a Korean Canadian journalist who relocated from Toronto to Paris in 2010. She creates a diverse range of content, from food and travel articles to breaking news, investigative pieces, cultural critiques, and personal essays. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, BBC, Vice, Robb Report, Lonely Planet, and the Telegraph UK, among others.